And Then There Were Seven
by x A Ninny Mouse x
Summary: Zadavia has been searching for others with powers for a while, when she finds Sive; a street rat with a mysterious past. The question is: Will Sive join, or will Sive's past  repeat itself? AcexLexi A story intro for my OC. I'm not very good at summaries
1. Prologue

**A/N: Okay, this is my first fanfic, so please be nice. I remember watching this show while it aired on Saturday mornings, and at once created an OC for it. It wasn't until recently, though, that I realized that my first OC really sucked. So, I scrapped that story and came up with this one. I am much happier with it, and decided to publish it. So, I'll end my note by saying please R&R!**

**DISCLAIMER: I own nothing. Well, I own a couple of things, but I'm not gonna say what yet. ;)**

Prologue

It started out as a normal Tuesday morning. It would NOT end that way.

I woke up, ran my fingers through my hair a few times, packed up all of my belongings in my tan messenger bag (yes, everything I owned fit inside one bag, with plenty of room leftover,) and got ready to survive through another day. _First things first_, I thought. _Breakfast._ That meant leaving home for the day and going into the heart of the district.

'Home' was a building that used to be an eight-story apartment building. The builders skipped a few steps during construction, so when the meteor hit a few years ago, it shook the earth enough to make half of the building collapse. I didn't have to worry about the city knocking it down, though.

The area of the city that the building was in was, in a nutshell, a bad area. The city had been trying for around 500 years to turn it around before giving up. Now, almost nothing productive happened there, but that was a good thing for me. I was the only inhabitant of the half-building, which meant I didn't have to pay rent. It also meant no running water or electricity, but I managed. I figured I had about six or seven more years until they got around to demolishing the place.

I chose to live in a room on the sixth floor. It still had some furniture in it, and that included a couch that I could sleep on. One of the walls was torn away when the building split, so I had a pretty good view, too. It was also good for a relatively easy exit. Well, easy for _me_, anyways.

Lengths of iron bars stuck out at different lengths from the collapsed side of the building. I walked up to the end of the floor, took a deep breath, and jumped. I grabbed one bar, flipped over it, dropped to one below, back flipped onto another lower bar, and continued until I hit the bottom. My agility and flexibility were aftereffects of the meteor radiation, and they were very handy.

"Here we go again," I mumbled to myself as I started walking to the main part of the district.

**xoxoxoxox**

"Are you absolutely certain that this one has powers? I have received six stories in the past two months about possible targets, and none of them had any superhuman abilities! Half of the stories were from you, I may add," the anxious woman practically shouted to the hologram in front of her.

"But-! I-! Miss Zadavia, I am sure this time!" replied the man in the hologram. "I'm sure I saw this guy phase right through a solid wall! I didn't believe it myself at first, but I saw him again a few weeks later, and this time he came up out of the floor! I'm telling you, he's really got powers!"

The few minutes Zadavia spent thinking it over seemed to take hours to the man. If she deemed his sighting as another false, then she would not be very happy with him, and Zadavia was one person _not_ to be on the bad side of.

Finally, Zadavia said, "Describe him to me."

The man sighed in relief, and began to describe the person he saw. "Uhhh... Let me think... He was an anthro! Yeah... And, uh, he had tall ears! And, uh... He had light green fur! And a short muzzle! Probably some kinda' dog now that I think about it..." Zadavia did not seem pleased. "Well, he moved so fast, I couldn't get a good look at him! Actually, I'm not entirely sure it's a 'him'..." This made Zadavia look as if she would have killed him had it been a face-to-face conversation. "But-!" the man interjected, "I'm guessing it's a him because of the name I got from the locals. I asked around, and the only anthro in the area matching that description was someone named Sive. I've never heard the name before, but it sounds like a guy's name... No one knew exactly where to find him, though; he likes to stay hidden." This seemed to quell Zadavia for the time being.

Zadavia typed his very limited description into a holographic notepad, and was about to sign off, when she thought of something else that she should ask her contact before she lost him.

"Tell me, where did you see this anthro?"

"Oh, uh," started the man. He had spent months searching in one of the largest cities in the world, so he almost forgot which area of the city he saw the anthro in. "New Chicago... A good way into the Navy District."

_The Navy District_, thought Zadavia. _It might be difficult to get this one to join us if that's where they are..._

**A/N: All will be explained in later chapters, I promise! And the actual Loonatics will appear in either the next chapter, or the one after that, depending on how long the next one is. I'll try to update ASAP. R&R!**


	2. Ch 1 The Beginning

**A/N: Wow, I never realized how difficult it is to type out the Loonatic's dialogue. Especially when you're typing on a smart phone (not saying what kind for fear of being attacked by copyright infringement…) Rev's was especially difficult… DX But, I'm surprised at myself for how fast I posted this. It gets interesting in the next chapter, I promise! **

**And just so everybody knows, any strange spelling in Ace's dialogue is me adapting for his accent.**

**DISCLAIMER: I own nothing except for Sive! …And some people you don't know yet.**

Ch. 1 The Beginning

**Sive's POV**

At this point, I was just entering the little library in the center of the district. It was the biggest building around, but I heard that it was smaller than most other libraries. I hadn't been to any others, so I couldn't say so for myself. It was also the only library, and I was probably the only one who still went inside, but I loved it anyways.

Before entering the library, I made a careful note as to where the fruit cart was parked. The same cart parked up against the wall of the library almost every single day; it was also where I got a lot of my food from.

I walked into the library, greeted the librarian, I walked up to one of the bookcases, and acted like I was browsing. When the librarian walked to another part of the library, I got to work.

I concentrated on myself, and felt the familiar tingling sensation; the feeling everyone gets when one of their limbs "falls asleep." I then moved my head slowly forward, through the bookcase, and then the wall, so that only enough of my face so that I could see outside was coming out of the other side of the wall. I looked around and saw that the fruit cart was right in front of me, and the only person around was the owner of the cart, who was sound asleep. I knew from previous experience that nothing short of another meteor would wake him up, so I was clear to go.

I pulled my head out of the wall, and started concentrating on my arm. I then stuck that through the wall and felt around until I touched the cart. I grabbed what I could in one handful, three apples in this case, and pulled my arm back through the wall. I did this two more times before leaving the library.

Yes, I know that that was stealing, but I had no choice. I didn't have any money, so I couldn't afford to pay for food, or anything else for that matter. Plus, I never took from good people. I knew for a fact that the fruit cart man only used the cart as a ploy to do drug exchanges with the local addicts, so I figured that I was just being karma.

After leaving the library, I took out one of the apples and started munching on it. I headed in the opposite direction of the fruit cart, towards the river. I had some people to meet over there, and I didn't want to be late.

**xoxoxoxox**

"What do you mean, _'leaving'_?" yelled a surprised Duck. "How will we know if there's a bank robbery, or a hostage situation, or if Weathervane attacks again, or if-?"

"Duck, you're starting to talk as much as Rev," Lexi commented.

"Well-you-know-Lexi-he's-sorta-kinda-right-I-mean-how-are-we-supposed-to-know-if-something-goes-wrong-I-know-that-we-could-find-out-on-our-own-but-probably-not-as-fast-as-when-you're-here-and-who-knows-what-" Rev got out before Tech clamped his beak shut... With an actual clamp.

_It'll take him a while to get outta that_, Tech thought as Rev struggled with the clamp.

"I'm sorry, Loonatics, but I do need to leave for a while," Zadavia stated. "I'm not sure how long I'll be gone, most likely a couple of weeks, but I'll be back as soon as possible. Tech, how quickly can you build something that will help you catch on to any criminal activities while I'm out?" Zadavia asked, careful not to say 'can you build it,' knowing that Tech didn't like being asked that.

"It should only take a few hours, a day at the most," replied Tech. He already had plans for such a device sketched up; he just needed to build them.

"Eh, Zadavia, are you goin' tah' tell us why you're' leavin'?" Ace said.

"Habla dah deh bah why?" Slam also asked. (At least, that's what they thought he meant...)

Zadavia spent a few minutes thinking before answering. "I don't want to get your hopes up, but I'm following yet another lead from one of my contacts. It may lead to a prospective new team member."

At once, everyone was buzzing with excitement.

"It would be kinda cool tah have someone else on da team," Ace commented.

"Another team member? Isn't having me around enough of a punishment for the bad guys?" Duck asked, ego ablaze.

"Ohhh-boy-another-team-member-I-hope-they're-nice-where-are-they-from-what-are-they-like-what-can-they-do?" asked Rev, who somehow managed to take the clamp off.

Slam happily yelled something that none of the others could understand.

"Ooooh, a new member!" said a very excited Lexi.

"Isn't this your third tip in the past two months?" asked a dubious Tech.

The others calmed down at this. (Zadavia had opted not to tell them about the last four tips.) "Yes it is, but I'm being cautiously optimistic about this one." Zadavia said.

"Zadavia, do you by any chance know if this one is a girl? Not that I don't love you guys, but I would really love not being the only girl around here!" Lexi asked.

"I'm sorry, Lexi, but I don't think that this one is a girl," Zadavia replied. Lexi's ears drooped in disappointment at this. "I do have a name for this one, which is why I believe it's not a girl. The name my contact found is Sive."

"Hmmm... Sive..." Tech said to himself, mulling it over.

"Quick question?" Duck interjected. "Why are we so desperate for new members?"

"Because, Duck," Zadavia replied sternly, "wouldn't it be better to have others with powers on our side rather than have them befriend someone like Weathervane or Mastermind first?"

"Yes'm," whimpered Duck.

"Well, Loonatics, I'm afraid I must be off now," Zadavia said. "Good luck, although I'm sure you can handle yourselves without me. I'll call as soon as I'm back. Zadavia out."

**A/N: Next chapter will be up ASAP. It gets interesting after this… Something to look forward to! R&R!**


	3. Ch 2 Developments

**A/N: Now it starts getting interesting! And, I put in another one of the actual LU characters! But first, some news on my updating. I'm going back to school tomorrow, ;~; so I will not have as much time to type. On top of that, I have Driver's Ed three days a week after school. I already have the next chapter typed up, I'm just not going to post it yet. It'll be up in a couple of days (probably Wednesday,) I just don't want to leave the people who read this hanging for a week. Once Driver's Ed is done (February,) then I'll probably have rapid speed updating again. Anyways, enjoy this chapter!**

**DISCLAIMER: I still don't own anything, and I don't know how to change that.**

Ch. 2 Developments…

**Sive's POV**

I finished the apple just before reaching my destination. I tossed it in a nearby dumpster, and rounded the corner to the wide riverside alley. It wasn't particularly nice there; the dumpsters were overflowing, the river wasn't exactly clean, and the concrete street could do with a repair in places, but it was a nice play area for the neighborhood kids. I could hear a group of them playing across the street behind me, but I was focused on the guy I was supposed to meet there.

There was a game of street hockey about to go on in front of me. After a quick count, I realized that one team was short a player, so they were stalling until someone else showed up. The captain of the short team looked around and saw me. He smiled and started walking up to me. He was a very tall, Hispanic boy of about 18. I never actually asked him his age before, but I figured we were about the same age.

"Hey, Perra!" he yelled to me, with a very heavy Spanish accent. He was the only one who was allowed to call me that; anyone else who tried quickly learned not to do it again.

"Hey, Rio!" I yelled back. He was the one I was meeting. He was my closest friend in the district, and he didn't care that I was an anthro, which wasn't common for that area. Anthros around there were typically worse convicts than the non-anthros, so I was hardly ever looked at nicely.

He asked me to meet him there to be there for a gang face off. When I say "gang," I mean street hockey gang. They were really teams; we just called them gangs to be funny. We were all friends in reality; it was just fun to say 'You goin' to the gang meeting tonight?' and watch the reactions of the people around you.

"Sorry, Coyote, but you came for nothing!" jeered the other gang leader, a light skinned Hispanic with a leather jacket and spiky black hair. Everyone called him Leto; he wouldn't tell anyone his real name.

Almost all of my friends around there were Hispanic. They either called me by name, or called me 'Coyote.' I was technically only 75% percent coyote, but it didn't really matter.

"Well, we are short a player..." stated Rio. He turned to me and asked, "Hey, are you up for a game, Sive?"

"Sure, Rio," I responded. "Let's show these guys who's boss."

A collective "Ohhhh!" sounded, and with that, the game began. None of us could afford rollerblades, so we just ran around. We had old tarps on trash cans for nets, and a few of the other players had nailed pieces of wood together for sticks. I borrowed one of Rio's extras. We did have an actual street hockey ball, though, and one of Leto's guys had a watch, so we did have an accurately timed game.

With 10 minutes to go, the score was 7-6, with Leto's guys in the lead. "Ohh, we're winning!" Leto yelled right after they scored the goal that put them in the lead. Leto was playing goalie. "Way to show us who's boss, Perra!"

_That's it_, I thought. _This guy's goin' down.  
_  
When the "puck" dropped, I was first to get it. I hit it between the guy in front of me's legs, sidestepped around him, gave a hard shoulder to the guy who tried taking the ball on the other side of the first guy, and slapshot it right at Leto. It hit him square in the family jewels, fell to the ground, and bounced into the goal. Leto fell a split second after that.

The alley erupted in a mixture of cheers, laughter, and pained 'Ohh"s from some of the guys looking at Leto. Everyone who was officially in a gang was a guy. I, however, was not officially in a gang, although Rio had asked me multiple times to join. I just laughed and cheered with the rest of Rio's gang. I had just broken the tie, but with 9 minutes left, anything could still happen.

Just then I heard Rio yell, "Oh, man! Hey, Sive, it's Dumb and Dumber!"

I looked behind me, and sure enough, there were two of my least favorite people in the world about 20 yards away, and running right for us. Dumb and Dumber were my nicknames for them; I knew their real names; I just chose not to use them.

"Aww, shi- Sorry, guys! Gotta go!" I yelled as I dropped Rio's stick and took off in the other direction. I heard pained yells from Dumb and Dumber as they passed the guys, and I could only imagine how hard the gangs were hitting them with their sticks. I could still hear them yelling at the two after I rounded the corner. I laughed when I heard Rio yell, "Don't make us run after you!" I knew that they wouldn't go after them unless I really got into trouble, but it was nice of Rio to say so, anyways. They knew I hardly ever got into trouble with those two, though; I was _way _too smart for them.

_Thanks for holding them up, guys_, I thought as I ran down the street. I looked back and saw Dumb and Dumber about 40 yards behind me. _Wow, they_ really _held them up_.

I turned another corner, and then another, and another, until I thought I lost them. I stopped to catch my breath and looked behind me; I didn't see anyone. I chuckled and turned back around, and somehow Dumb and Dumber were standing 10 feet in front of me.

"AHH! How do you guys keep on doing that?" I yelled in exasperation, backing away from them.

"That's none of your business," said Dumber, the bigger of the two. They were in identical grey suits with black ties and shoes. Dumb was a short ginger man, whereas Dumber was a tall, built man with brown hair.

"Now are you gonna come wit' us dis time," began Dumb, with his heavy New York accent, "Or are we gonna have tah do dis da hard way?" He asked the exact same question every single time we met, which was about twice a month. I always gave him the same answer, but it seemed as if he always expected me to say something different.

"Well, you know me," I replied as I turned around and darted away.

I heard Dumb curse behind me as they started to follow. I wasn't worried about them catching me, though; they'd been trying to catch me for years. Obviously, they hadn't ever succeeded.

I turned a corner and now I was in a busy area of the district. There were people all over the place, and thanks to my small size, I was able to weave around them easily. Dumber was too big to do this, so I quickly left him behind. Dumb _was _small enough to do this, but short legs can only carry you so fast, and it wasn't long before he was a ways behind me, too.

I darted into an alleyway, one that was a dead end. I did this purposely. Dumb and Dumber don't know what I can do, only that I can do something. Something that helps me get away from them every time...

I ran right for the wall, concentrated, and ran right through it and out the other side. To Dumb and Dumber, who were too far behind to see what I did, I had disappeared. On the other side, I turned off my powers and continued running, not looking where I was going, and _BAM!_ I had run into something, or someone. _That someone would have to be built like a brick wall, though_, I thought, _'Cuz they didn't move an inch!_

"Owww," I moaned, rubbing my head. I ran into whatever it was headfirst, and that had really hurt.

I looked up and realized that it was a someone... Someone tall, wearing a long cloak, and staring at me...

**xoxoxoxox**

Mallory Mastermind was sitting in her base trying, and failing, to come up with a new approach to defeating the Loonatics. She had been in hiding for months, staying underground, building new weapons with the limited supplies she had, desperately trying to think of a plan.

"If I don't come up with something to get rid of them soon, I'm going to snap," Mastermind mumbled to herself.

"I may be able to help you with that," said a deep male voice behind her.

She jumped from surprise and turned around. On the computer screen behind her was the silhouette of a large man with tall ears. _Another dog I have to deal with?_ thought Mastermind.

"Who are you, and why are you on my monitor?" asked Mastermind in a sickly sweet voice.

"I won't tell you who I am just yet. I'm on your monitor by hacking my way in. Terribly sorry for that, by the way," replied the man on the screen.

"How did you manage to do that? I have a very complicated system. No one has got in yet, and believe me when I say that many have tried." _Like a certain dog I know…_ she thought to herself.

"Well, when you have an entire IT department working on something for two and a half straight months, you usually get where you want to go," the man on the screen said smugly.

"You have my attention," stated a slightly impressed Mastermind.

"Good," said the man on the screen. Mastermind could tell he was smirking, even though she couldn't see it. "I have a proposition for you. It would involve you doing a little work, but it would end with me getting what I want, and you getting what you want. The destruction of a certain team of superheroes, perhaps?"

_I like the sound of this already_, thought Mastermind. "Please, go on," she said.

**A/N: Who's the person in the cloak? Who's the guy on the screen? Why are those two guys after Sive? Who do they work for? Why am I asking **_**you**_** all these questions? ...This is what happens when I stay up late to finish a chapter. XD Some of these questions will be answered in the next chapter... Not all, but some... R&R!**


	4. Ch 3 The More Things Change

**A/N: There will be a surprise in this one, but if you were **_**really**_** paying attention, you may have already guessed what it is. And just so everybody knows, I did change the summary a little. I was thinking it over a while ago, and realized that I have no idea how to include... What I took out of my summary. If you saw it and remember it, then you know part of what my next story will include! (I am planning on making at least 3.) If you don't remember it, you'll just have to wait and find out. **

**DISCLAIMER: Yep. I still don't own anything except for Sive, the guy on the monitor, and two someones you all haven't met yet.**

Ch. 3 The More Things Change...

**Zadavia's POV**

I had been in New Chicago for six days looking for Sive. I asked the locals, and they either didn't know who I was talking about, knew of Sive, but had no idea where I could find him, or knew him personally, but didn't know where to find him. I think they may have lied about that, but I couldn't be sure.

I was following a tip I received from a boy in a leather jacket with a slight limp. He said that Sive liked to hang around the library, and gave me directions. I walked up to the alley that the library was supposed to be on, turned to start walking down it, and stopped.

A dead end.

I groaned in annoyance and turned around, looking around to see if there was anyone else around who could give me directions. The second my back was turned, I felt something hit me from behind. Thinking it was someone trying to rob me, which would not have been uncommon in that part of town, I turned around, ready to fight back, when I saw a young anthro on the ground.

The anthro was some type of mutt; part coyote and part something else. I could tell coyote from the ears; they were just like Tech's, but more of a green-yellow color. I could tell that this anthro wasn't all coyote from the muzzle; it was too short to be a coyote's muzzle. It was also the only part of the anthro's fur that wasn't the green-yellow color; it was white, apart from the small black nose. The fact that this anthro matched my contacts description was a little lost on me, though. I was surprised at another characteristic of the anthro.

She was a girl.

She had shoulder length, wavy black hair that was very tangled and dirty. Her clothes were stained and faded, and had rips and holes. Her shoes were in the same state. I couldn't see her eyes; she had them shut tight and was rubbing her forehead. I guessed that she ran into me headfirst. After I had gotten over the surprise of her being a girl, I noticed one other thing.

She had seemingly come out of nowhere. There was nowhere to hide in the alley, the buildings on either side were too high to jump off of, all of the windows were closed, and there was a brick wall behind the anthro. I remembered what my contact said about Sive being able to phase through solid objects, and immediately knew that this girl was the one I was looking for.

"Owww," moaned the girl. She opened her eyes and looked up at me. Her eyes were a deep shade of blue, but they were darker than Duck's and Ace's. She had a look of surprise on her face, but she didn't seem afraid.

"Are you Sive?" I asked the girl.

"Well, that entirely depends on who's asking," she replied, sounding slightly sarcastic.

"My name is Zadavia." I told her as I took off the hood of my cloak.

"Who do you work for?" she asked me, looking wary.

"I don't work for anyone." _That's a strange question to ask..._ I thought.

"You'll forgive me for not believing you at first, but there is a person trying to find me, and I really don't want to be found. I've learned the hard way not to trust anyone right away," Sive stated.

"Probably not a bad idea," I told her. "Who is trying to find you?" I asked, genuinely concerned.

"Let's just say that in my family, the term 'Daddy Issues' is given a new meaning," she said with a smirk.

"I see," I said. "But, right now you're probably wondering why I'm here." Sive nodded. "I'm here to talk to you about what you can do, Sive." She raised an eyebrow. "Your powers? You phased right through a wall, Sive, I know you did."

Her ears bent down a little as she became more wary than before. She looked around a little, picked herself up off of the ground, and whispered to me, "Alright, but not here. Follow me."

She started walking, and I followed. After a few minutes, we arrived at a condemned, boarded up building. We walked around to the back where Sive pulled off a series of planks that were nailed together and leaning on the wall. There was a hole in the wall behind the wood. Sive gestured for me to go inside, and after a moment's hesitation, I did. Sive followed me in and replaced the boards over the hole.

It was pitch black in there. I heard Sive walk away from me. There was silence for a moment, until I heard what sounded like thunder, and suddenly all of the lights came on. I looked over at Sive, who had her hand on a fuse box. _Fuse box? _I thought. _How old is this building?_

"How did you do that?" I asked.

"I have electricity powers, too," she replied. "I can generate electricity, but not in any really big amount. I can also take it away from a source."

"I see," I said.

"So, you wanted to talk to me about my powers?"

"Yes," I replied. "I have a request for you. But first, have you ever been to Acmetropolis?" Sive shook her head. "Alright, have you ever heard of the Loonatics?" Sive raised her eyebrow. "Okay, then. In Acmetropolis, I have a team assembled; a team of superheroes. There are six of them, and they are all anthros with powers, just like you." Sive's eyes widened a little in surprise. "I came here to find you to talk about joining with them. I have been searching for those with powers for a while now to either talk to them about joining, or to warn them to stay away from certain characters who would take advantage of them."

"So you're wondering if I want to join up with some team of superheroes?" she asked skeptically. I nodded in response. "Well... I just met you about half an hour ago, and then you start telling me this wild and crazy story about looking for new members and such! I'm finding this a _little _hard to believe! On top of that, you somehow know who I was and what I could do, and I typically try to _avoid _people like that!"

"Why is that?"

"Because…" She seemed hesitant to answer. "Because someone's out to get me, and I need to be careful about who I talk to, and what I say."

"Someone's after you?" I asked, sounding concerned. I was concerned for her, actually; she looked really young, and I could tell that she had been through things that someone her age should never have been through. "Who is it?"

"I'm not going to say that yet…" she began, "but I assure you that he's no closer to catching me today than he was when he first started trying. He's only got one way to do it as of right now, and that way hasn't worked for him yet."

"If you insist…" I conceded. I could tell that she had trust issues based upon what she wasn't telling me, and from the limited information she gave me, she had good reasons not to tell anyone anything.

"Well, I didn't think you'd agree at first," I began, "but I made this in hopes of changing your mind." I reached into the inside pocket of my cloak and took out a portable holographic screen. "I have on here news footage of the Loonatics helping people, fighting their enemies, etcetera. At first I made it in hopes that it would look like something you'd like to do, but now I see that it will hopefully show you that they're real and that I'm telling the truth."

I handed the screen to Sive and she put it inside of her bag.

"I would also like to give you this," I said to her, handing her what looked like a watch. It had a silver colored face, brown, leather straps, and two buttons.

"A watch?" Sive asked, looking skeptical.

"Yes, in that it tells time. But it is also a communicator," I told her. "If you push and hold the two buttons, you can contact me. If I call you, you'll hear what sounds like a regular watch alarm. Push the button on the right to answer, and the button on the left to hang up."

"Can you track me with this?" asked Sive, still looking wary.

"No," I answered. "There's only so much technology you can fit into a watch."

She chuckled and looked at the watch for a moment. If she didn't accept it, than it would take a while to earn her trust. Then, she put it on, and I hoped that I was getting somewhere with her.

"Sive?" I began tentatively. I knew that she still didn't completely trust me, so I had to tread carefully with this question. "Could you tell me a little about yourself?"

"Why?" she asked, perking up her ears out of interest.

"Well, I think that at least two of the Loonatics would like to know a bit about you," I explained with Rev and Lexi in mind.

She paused for a moment. _Probably thinking if it's a good idea or not, _I thought to myself. "Tell me about them, first," she told me. This took me by surprise; I hadn't expected her to agree to it in the first place, but it looked as if she had. I didn't expect her to ask about the Loonatics, either, but I was ready to answer it, anyways.

"Well, alright," I replied, my surprise obvious in my voice. I then told her all about the Loonatics in a more personal way than an official way. The screen I gave her showed what they did on a regular basis, but nothing on what they're like as people. She seemed interested in all of them, and laughed at my explanation of Duck.

After I told her about them, and a bit about myself, she told me about herself. She avoided any questions relating to her past, but she readily answered anything involving the little things such as hobbies, music, friends, etcetera. But I took careful note how she even avoided the questions about her family.

"Sive, now that I've found you and delivered the message, I have nothing more to do here. I'll be leaving for Acmetropolis as soon as possible," I informed her after we had finished talking. "I would like you to see what I have compiled about the Loonatics on that screen I gave you, and please give my offer a lot of thought. Please contact me on the watch when you've made your decision."

"Alright," she replied.

"And one other thing," I said as I remembered something else that I needed to tell her. "If anyone else approaches you about your powers, don't trust them. Get away from them as soon as possible, and contact me immediately afterward."

"Got it," she told me. "See you around, then," she called after me as I left the building.

**xoxoxoxox**

"It'll be a pleasure working with you, Mallory," said the man onscreen.

"The pleasure's mine, sir," replied Mastermind.

"Please," said the man on the screen. "Call me Solomon. Solomon Marovic."

_This'll be great, _thought Mastermind_. I'll get my revenge on the Loonatics, and unlimited supplies for anything I want to build for life. And all I have to do is find some super powered brat, make her trust me, and give her back to her dad..._

**A/N: Ok, that may be it for a few days. I'm having issues with the next chapter, and on top of that I'm having an argument with my parents about joining a scholars program or not... (Long story.) Anyways, I'm pretty busy right now, and I'm not sure if I'll have time to type so I may not be able to get another chapter up for… Oh, I don't know… A week? DX I'm not happy about it either, but I'll see how this weekend goes. R&R!**


	5. Ch 4 Upon Returning

**A/N: Look up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's an update! (It's really late right now…) 8P And I got this up a day earlier than expected! …Wow, that still took a long time to type... And it's an oddly short chapter for me as well… Hmmm… I must fix the problem! I promise that the next chapter will be interesting! Until then, read on!**

**DISCLAIMER: Do I look like I own anything to you? Well, I own Sive and Solomon, but that's it! I promise!**

Ch. 4 Upon Returning...

It was an oddly quiet week in Acmetropolis. None of the major villains had caused any trouble, and there were only two things that came up that the police couldn't handle, and they were way easier than what the Loonatics usually had to deal with. It had been going on 8 days since Zadavia had left, and the Loonatics were all eagerly waiting for her to get back, even though they knew it should have been a few more days.

It was 8 in the morning, and five of the Loonatics were awake and doing their usual morning activities. Slam was eating six boxes of cereal with two gallons of milk in a turkey pot, Tech was doing who-knows-what in the lab, Rev was helping Tech, Ace was meditating on his floating pillow, and Lexi watching TV. Duck was still asleep.

Lexi, Ace and Slam were all very surprised when the hologram projector started beeping; the signal for an incoming call from Zadavia, (they were the only ones close enough to hear it.)

"Hello, Loonatics," Zadavia said as her image appeared.

"Hey, Zadavia! You're back early!" Lexi observed gleefully.

"Yes, and with good news," stated a smiling Zadavia. "Would you please go get the others?"

"I'll go grab Tech and Rev!" Lexi yelled behind her. No one had noticed her quietly sneaking towards the door.

"Dat means we have we have tah go get Duck, doesn't it?" Ace speculated, looking at Slam. They both knew waking Duck up for anything short of a city-wide emergency was an almost impossible, and very painful task.

They stalked off just as Rev came running in, holding a random part to... Something.

"Zadavia-you're-back-how-did-it-go-did-you-find-Sive-does-he-have-powers-does-he-wanna-join-"

"Rev!" Zadavia shouted, cutting him off. "What is that you're holding?" she asked noticing the strange metal piece.

Rev looked at the piece in his hand and replied, "Oh-it's-just-the-" He stopped short. "Oh-crap!" he yelled, running out of the room and back to the lab.

Rev was gone for a few minutes, and Zadavia was just wondering what happened to Ace and Slam when he came back with Tech and Lexi, neither of whom looking very pleased.

"What happened?" asked Zadavia.

"Well," Lexi said quickly, not giving Rev a chance to start rambling, "I'm guessing that Tech and Rev were doing some work on the underside of one of the bikes, when I came in saying that you were back, and Rev ran away, taking a part of something holding up the bike with him. The bike stared to fall over on top of us, and Tech pushed me out of the way, but it landed on him, and I couldn't get it off on my own, and Tech couldn't get an arm free to use his magnetism. Then, Rev came back and helped."

"I'm just glad we didn't start with Slam's bike," Tech muttered. "Then I really would've been in trouble."

The three sat down on the couch. Rev looked around and asked, "Hey-where-are-the-other-guys?"

Rev got his answer when they heard yelling from the general direction of their rooms. Duck quacked onto the pool table, and Ace and Slam walked in not long after.

"What's the big idea, waking me up so early?" Duck asked looking more than slightly annoyed.

"Now that we are finally all here," Zadavia said, glaring at Duck, "I have some news to share with you. I met Sive, and unlike others my contact pointed me to, she actually had powers."

"Wait, did you just say 'she'?" Tech asked, looking slightly confused.

"Yes, I did. Lexi, you will be pleased to hear that I was wrong in my assumption. Sive is, in fact, a girl."

Lexi let out such a high pitched squeal, everyone, including Zadavia, had to cover their ears.

"Lexi, I think you just unlocked some kind of new 'super scream' power," Duck said.

"I'm with Duck on dis one," Ace stated.

"Ohh- wow-someone-else-with-powers-hey-Zadavia-what's-she-like-what-can-she-do-does-she-want-to-join-" Rev got off before Duck shoved one of the pool balls in his mouth.

"It's _way_ too early for ramblings!" he said, still sounding annoyed.

"_Anyways_," Zadavia began sternly, quieting Duck for the time being. "She can phase through solid objects and has electricity-related abilities. That part of what she can do I don't have any details on other than that she can act as a small-scale generator and take power away from a source. As for what she is like..." Zadavia paused to think. "She seems like a nice person. She wouldn't do anything to hurt an innocent person, despite the stereotype of people from that community."

"And that community would be...?" Tech cut in.

"New Chicago's Navy District."

"Say what?" Tech repeated in a disbelieving tone. "The Navy District?"

"I take it that that's a bad thing, then," Duck said.

"It's one of the worst areas in the country!" Tech exclaimed. "Everyone around there is typically some type of criminal! Well, except for the area near the river; it's better around there."

"And that's exactly where I found Sive," Zadavia reassured.

"If she's from there though…" Tech began, still mulling over the location. "…Does she actually live anywhere, or is she a street kid?"

"Unfortunately, she's off the streets," Zadavia stated grimly. "She wouldn't tell me anything from her past, but I can tell it's not a happy story. She has trust issues from it, and there's someone apparently after her, but she wouldn't tell me who. She did say not to worry about her, but it's difficult when you don't have the full story."

"How old is she?" Lexi asked.

"Younger than the rest of you, but I'm not exactly sure," Zadavia stated. "Maybe around seventeen."

"Wow-that-must-be-hard-trying-to-live-on-the-streets-when-you're-so-young," Rev said. "Did-she-say-whether-she-wanted-to-join-or-not-because-if-she-did-and-she-said-yes-then-that-would-solve-that-problem."

"She didn't give me an answer as of yet, but I'm cautiously optimistic," Zadavia stated.

"Well, either way, it's good tah have ya back, Zadavia," Ace said.

"Thank you, Ace. I will call you when I hear from Sive. Until then, Zadavia out."

**A/N: So, this chapter was kinda filler-ish, but the next one will have answers in it! Like as to who Solomon Marovic is, and hints as to why he's after Sive! *Dun dun duuun* **

**Anyways, before I start spazzing out too much on anyone reading this, (does anyone actually **_**read**_** the A/N's?) I just want to say that my next chapter will be up… Most likely Friday or Saturday. And PLEASE R&R!**


	6. Ch 5 Questions and Answers

**A/N: There was something else I wanted to put in this chapter, but then it would have been too long, so I have to squeeze it into the next chapter, which I will then have to edit for length, due to the fact that I already finished it. GRR! Anyways, I successfully got my permit, (YAY) but now I'm going to have even less time to type due to the fact that I have a) extra driving to do in my Driver's Ed class and b) practicing with my parents (AWWW!). I will try to do at least a chapter a week, and if I don't succeed, then I will take a long walk off of a short pier because of how annoyed with myself I will be.**

**And by the way, the character Naomi in this chapter is based off of one of my friends. You know who you are… XD **

**DISCLAIMER: We've been over this. I don't own anything, except my own characters and storyline, yadda, yadda, yadda…**

Ch. 5 Questions and Answers

**Solomon's POV**

"Please," I said smugly, "Call me Solomon. Solomon Marovic."

"When will I receive the information from you?" asked Mastermind.

"Soon," I replied. "Anytime within the next 48 hours. The second you receive it, I would like you to get to work."

"Of course. The sooner I find this girl, the sooner I can get rid of the Loonatics," she explained.

"Just make sure that I receive her in one piece. Contact me when you have her, and not a moment after. Until then, Mallory, adieu," I said as I ended the communication.

It was all going exactly as planned.

The "Mastermind" woman had agreed right away… After I told her she would receive unlimited supplies for doing what I asked.

What she had to do was very simple: Find Sive, (although we already knew the general area that we could find her in,) get Sive to trust her (the only difficult part of the operation,) and then Mallory would give her back to me. _And then I'll finally get that key...  
_  
I was pulled out of my thoughts as the phone on my desk beeped.

"Sir, they're back again," said my secretary, Naomi.

I sighed and replied through the speaker, "Send them in."

Two scared looking men in gray suits walked into my office, followed by Naomi. I looked up to face them, and glared. They all froze on the spot. I was a very intimidating person, and I used it to my advantage. My grey eye color and my overall size were odd, especially for a coyote anthro. They were aftereffects of the meteor, and the size wasn't just for show. I could've killed a grown man by tackling him if I felt like it, and it had crossed my mind a few times.

"Yes, Naomi?" I asked when she didn't leave.

"Should I tell Mr. Fay that you will be late for the meeting?" she asked looking afraid.

"Yes, please," I replied. I waited until she had walked out and shut the door before continuing.

"Well?" I barked at the two men, smirking when they jumped.

"Uhh... W-w-well..." stuttered the shorter of the two. "...She got away from us again."

I let out a deep, low growl, which paralyzed both of them. "I've had you two imbeciles chasing after her for..." I had to pause to think about how long I've had them after her. It had been a _very_ long time. "...Going on 7 years now! I would have gotten rid of you two long ago if you weren't my only option! If I knew of anyone else that could track her down, then I would give them the moon to replace you two! But instead, I'm stuck relying on you, and your hyper-sensitive nose to find her!"

"But, sir!" whimpered the short one. "My super sense of smell only helps track her down, not catch her!"

_Maybe 'Dumb and Dumber' aren't such bad names for them after all,_ I thought to myself. He was the only one ever able to track her down, and the other was the muscle of the team, so until I could find someone else able to track her (which was proving quite difficult: Many anthros were affected by the meteor, but they're not common. Few humans were affected directly, so it was difficult to find anyone that was of any help.) I was stuck with them.

"It doesn't matter anymore. I don't need either of you two to go after her again. Not yet."

"Whaddya mean, boss?" asked the larger one with his deep, slow, voice that betrayed his overall stupidity.

"I'll explain later," I told them, knowing that I would not be giving those two my whole plan. They were bound to screw it up somehow. "Right now I have a marketing meeting to get to."

I walked out of my office and down the hall. _Being CEO of such a large company can be so tiring,_ I thought. _Having to deal with those two doesn't help, either. No matter. Soon, I will have that key, and the game of cat and mouse with my daughter will end._

_Watch your back, Sive. I'm ending this sooner than you think._

**xoxoxoxox**

**Naomi's POV**

I was in shock. I had been eavesdropping on my very secretive, very frightening boss for just short of 6 years, and what I had just heard was something I was very glad I didn't miss.

I heard someone using the access panel outside of my office door, so I made a mad scramble back to my desk. I turned around, and fell over my own feet. I made a hurried crawl back to my desk, stood up, brushed off my purple pantsuit outfit, quickly redid my long, brown hair into a fishtail braid, put it in a bun, and sat down at my desk; all under 45 seconds. I eavesdropped so often, I was able to get a lot of practice for whenever someone was coming. I always managed to trip myself up, though; that was why I never wore heels.

I looked at the two that entered my office. One was oddly tall, the other oddly short, and they both looked worried. If I was in their position, I would have been worried, too.

I pushed a button on my phone and said, "Sir, they're back again." I didn't have to say who; he just knew.

"Send them in," he replied, not sounding happy.

I stood up, straightened my glasses, and pushed the button on my desk that opened the door to my boss' office. The two men walked in, and I followed.

I stepped into his office and waited. Normally I would just leave, but this time, I had to stay for only a moment to give myself an excuse to disappear for a while. I regretted this immediately; he looked up at us and glared, and it scared me to death. He was more than three times my size, and on top of that he was a dark brown coyote anthro, and that particular species was one that could be very menacing if they felt like it. And with my boss, he _always _felt like it.

"Yes, Naomi?" He said without taking his eyes off of the other two. He never said anything to them if I was there; as far as he knew, I knew nothing about them. I did know that he used them to chase after Sive, but he didn't know that, and I meant to keep it that way. If he knew that I knew, I wouldn't live very long.

"Should I tell Mr. Fay that you will be late for the meeting?" I asked. That was my excuse for leaving; Mr. Fay's office was on the other end of the building.

"Yes, please," he replied, still not taking his eyes off of the other two.

I turned around, walked out of the door, closed it, and slumped to the floor. I took a few deep, calming breaths before getting up and walking over to my desk. I sent a quick email to Mr. Fay saying that Mr. Marovic would be late, got up, and walked as quickly as possible to the elevator. It was a secluded floor of the building, and there was only one elevator leading all the way there, so I didn't have to wait very long to hear the '_ding_.' I could hear Mr. Marovic yelling from inside the elevator. I wasn't worried about the two men actually catching Sive; if they showed up looking scared, then they didn't do their jobs right. Again.

_I feel so bad for them, though,_ I thought. They were yelled at at least twice a month, depending on how badly they screwed up that particular time.

I hit the button for the 68th floor, the main lab floor of the building, and was on my way. We had a lot of lab floors, but that one was where the second in command of the company was, making it the main lab floor.

After a short ride, I got off and walked into the lab. There was a large group of scientists standing around two people, one of whom was yelling at the other.

"...I don't see how _anyone_, much less the _manager_ of a project, could make such a _stupid_ _mistake_!" I heard one of them shout in an exasperated tone. "If you had actually turned this thing on, it would have blown the whole fucking building sky high!"

_He must be pretty mad,_ I thought. _He only swears when someone _really_ ticks him off._

"Um, Mr. Marovic? May I have a word with you?" I asked after breaking through the surrounding ring of scientists and seeing a coyote anthro cornering a very freighted looking man in a lab coat. The anthro had brownish-salmon colored fur (he got mad whenever I said it looked pink, even though it did,) a dark grey pinstripe suit, light blue collared shirt, and eyes that were a very deep shade of blue. At that time, he looked like he was going to kill someone, but if he looked at someone with the right expression, it could melt their heart.

"Not right now, Naomi. I'm in the middle of something," the anthro said to me through gritted teeth, looking at me through the corner of his eye.

"It's important," I said, showing urgency. "From the office of your dad."

Me saying "your dad," instead of "Mr. Marovic," was our code for, "It's about Sive."

Yes, the one I was looking for was the second in command of the company, and my boss' son, Aaron Marovic.

Our code caught his attention. He turned to the man and jabbed his finger into his chest. "_I'll deal with you later,_" he hissed. He turned to the congregation of scientists and yelled, "All of you, back to work!"

The rest of the scientists disbanded and went to their stations. The just walked then, but if it was Solomon saying it, there would have been a mad scramble to go back to whatever they were doing.

"Follow me," Aaron said to me. I looked at him and saw worry painted on his face, and his eyes had one of the "heart melting looks." I never enjoyed looking at his eyes so much. They reminded me of-

_No,_ I thought. _I will _not_ think about her. Not now. She wouldn't want me to think about her at a time like this. Whenever I think about her, I get distracted and caught up in the past, and I need to be fully here for this._

I followed him up half a flight of stairs in the back of the lab and into a room with his personal secretary. "Take 5, Secilia," he said to her. She got up and walked out. He typed a code into a keypad, opening the door to his office, and walked inside. I followed him, closing and locking the soundproof door behind me.

**A/N: What is the key they are talking about? Who are Naomi and Aaron? Who was Naomi thinking about? Does Mr. Fay have any importance? (He doesn't.) Why am I continuously asking questions? …Ok, I know **_**why**_** I'm doing it, (to build up suspense,) but I think that I'm failing miserably. And as for the key… Well, that won't be explained in this story! XD It will be in a later one, but until then, only **_**I **_**will know the answer…. Ok, I actually don't have the full answer yet, but come the story in which the key has importance, I **_**will**_** know what I'm talking about! Until then, I shall continue to confuse myself and the public. R&R! I love reviews!**


	7. Ch 6 Company Spies and Responses

**A/N: Just making sure everybody knows this: When I type in italics, and it's not inside of what someone is saying or a flashback, then it's what someone is thinking, even if I don't specify it. (I will specify flashbacks.) **

**And by the way, I might start making longer chapters. I want the story to move along a little faster, and that's the only way I can do it without cutting out parts of the story. And for those of you waiting for action, there **_**will**_** be some somewhere in the next three chapters. Most likely two. But maybe three. Just sayin'.**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Loonatics Unleashed, any of it's characters and/or gadgets, or Google, which will someday rule the world. XD **

Ch. 6 Company Spies and Responses

**Aaron's POV**

I started talking only after Naomi had closed the door and I had closed the shades to all of the windows.

"What did you hear?" I asked, talking much quicker than normal out of worry. If Naomi came to me right away to tell me something, it was usually really important. "They didn't catch her, did they?"

"No, no, nothing like that," Naomi responded. "But it could mean bad news in the near future."

"When it involves Dad and Sive, when is it _not_ bad news?" I asked, being slightly sarcastic.

"True, but I really need to explain this quickly. I don't have a lot of time," she explained, looking behind her as if she expected Dad to jump out at her.

"Alright, then. Let's hear it."

I did not expect what she told me at all. A very Dad-like plan involving manipulating many people, someone named "Mastermind," and a whole mess of legal trouble if the fed's found out. And something about that key again...

"I wish we knew what this key was..." I mumbled to myself. "Well, we should first try to figure out who this "Mastermind" person is," I said to Naomi.

"And how do you think we're gonna do that?" she asked. "This person could be totally off the grid!"

"Well, I thought we'd start with the basics," I said with overconfidence in my voice. I sat down at my desk and tuned on my computer.

"What are you going to do? _Google_ this person?" Naomi asked me skeptically, and with a touch of sarcasm.

"Actually, yes," I replied, typing in the name "Mastermind" into the immortal search engine. It was celebrating it's 776th birthday this year. "_Whoa_," I whispered as more than 3,000,000 hits came up on the screen. "I don't think that finding this person is going to be a problem."

We looked, read and learned everything possible about Mastermind.

"I think we should look up these 'Loonatics' people, too," Naomi said to me. I typed it in and searched.

"Superheroes... Acmetropolis... Formed a couple of years ago..." I mumbled as I read. It was a bad habit. "Alright, so they're a team of six superheroes, all anthros, residing in Acmetropolis, and regularly deal with Mastermind."

"Well, if we're going to help Sive, something tells me they're going to have to get involved," Naomi speculated. "That means we have to go to Acmetropolis."

"No," I said. "I'm not letting you get any more involved in this."

"_WHAT_?" she yelled. "You can't just- You can't go- You can't-"

"I've put you in enough danger already," I explained, referring to her eavesdropping on my dad per my request. "You practically _raised_ Sive and I after mom died. I can't risk losing you, too, Aunt Nae." That's what I called her when we were alone, even though it was a genetic impossibility for her to be my aunt; she was human, I was a 75% coyote anthro, and 25%... Something else. Mom never did tell me what her other half was. Naomi grew up with her, and Mom was practically her older sister. Naomi said I had her ears and her eyes, but I could barely remember what she looked like; I was only 11 when she died, and Sive was only 6. That was about 11 years ago at the time.

"Aaron, I know how you feel," Naomi said, in her motherly-tone that she used on Sive and I when we were little. "But _I_ can't risk losing Sive. I promised your mother that I would keep you two safe. I failed her once, and I won't do it again," she said with a haunted look in her eyes. We both always felt guilty when we thought about what happened 9 years ago, even though it wasn't our fault.

I had conflicting thoughts. I didn't want to put her in more danger, but she was as much involved in it as I was. "Alright," I said after a few minutes. "But we're going to need to move quickly and quietly. Go home, right now, no questions, and avoid talking to anyone," I ordered. "Make all of the necessary arrangements to disappear for... A good,_ long_ while. We need to leave as soon as possible. As in tomorrow night. I'll do all of the other preparations, you just get ready and meet me in the park tomorrow at 1 AM. And do it so that Dad doesn't find out. If he knows, we're dead. _Literally._"

"Got it. Good luck," she said behind her as she left my office.

"Yeah, that's something I never seem to have enough of," I mumbled. I looked through my desk drawer until I found what I was looking for, a small case, and headed for my dad's office. Thankfully, I didn't see anyone on the way.

I walked into Naomi's office and saw a note on her desk in neon-green paper. It said,

"Mr. Marovic,

I apologize for leaving so quickly, but I just got really sick. I need to go home. I don't think I'll be in tomorrow, so you'll need to call in a temp. I'll be back as soon as possible.

Naomi"

It was written in such a hurried scrawl that I could barely read it, but it would do the job. I put the note back on the desk and opened the door to Dad's office. Thankfully, there was no one inside; Dad was still at his meeting. I closed the door and sat down at his desk. I turned on his computer, and it immediately asked for a password.

I took the case out of my pocket and went to the keypad that opened the case. Inside was a medley of gadgets; a few flash drives, a collection of CDs of varying sizes, and a mini toolkit. Our company made and sold these cases regularly, but I made a special alteration to mine.

I typed in the code 08262756 which opened a secret compartment on the outside of the case. This was something that I wasn't worried about Dad finding out about. The code was something he would never guess; Sive's birthday. Even if he did know that that was the code, he wouldn't know what numbers to put in, anyway.

I went to the secret compartment and pulled out what was inside; a CD smaller than the palm of my hand, a flash drive that was about two third's smaller than normal, a folded up photograph of a woman and two children, and a multi-colored bead bracelet that barely fit over three of my fingers.

I put the photo and the bracelet back in the compartment: I didn't have time to look back to the past. I took the flash drive and plugged it into the computer. Immediately, a code breaker appeared on-screen and got to work.

This was my own invention. It automatically broke through any encrypted file or password-protected server accessed on the computer when you plugged it into a USB port, and as soon as you unplugged it, the computer would reset as if it was never there. It was the only completely undetectable hacking device in existence, and no one knew about it except for me.

Once it hacked through, I took the disk and put it into the disk drive. This was also my invention; it copied absolutely everything on the computer, and had practically unlimited memory. With the flash drive and the disk together, I could get absolutely everything off the computer. It was done uploading almost immediately, and right as it finished I heard movement outside.

I unplugged the flash drive, and watched as the computer screen went blank, and then it lit up again at the original startup password page. I turned off the computer, repacked the case, put it into my pocket, and got out from behind the desk. I looked back and realized: _I forgot to get the CD!_ I grabbed it and hid it the only place I could right as the door opened.

"Hey, Dad," I said, slightly out of breath.

"Aaron!" Dad said in greeting. "What are you doing here?"

"Actually, I just had a question for you," I said, making this up as I went along. "Well, uh, you see... I just had a big problem down at the lab, and I'm not sure what course of action I should take!" I blurted, using the earlier screw-up in the lab as cover. I actually knew what I should've done, but he didn't know that.

"What happened?" he asked, slightly interested.

"Well, one of the project managers made a bonehead mistake that would've killed us all had he turned on the machine, but I stopped him just-in-time. I was wondering if I should just fire him, or bring him to you, then fire him," I explained.

"Who was it? Travers?" he asked, naming one of the not-so-bright managers.

"No, Langley," I replied.

"Hmm... In that case, send him to me," he said.

"Got it," I said, starting for the door.

"One other thing?" he asked. I stopped in my tracks and turned around, worried that he somehow knew what I was really doing there. "Could you ask Secilia to hire a temp for Naomi for the next few days? She apparently got sick."

"Sure thing, Dad," I said, letting out a breath I didn't know I was holding. "See you later."

I walked out of his office and made my way back to mine. Once I was inside, I unbuttoned the first few buttons of my shirt and took out my necklace. It was made entirely of gold; it had a golden chain, and a gold symbol that no one could recognize. It looked like an 'S' overlapping with a 'V.' Mom gave it to me for my tenth birthday and told me not to take it off; to keep it save. I told her I would, and was true to my word; I never even told Dad about it, only Sive. She also said that she would explain the symbol to me when I was older, but she never got the chance.

On the 'V' of the symbol, the two top points of the letter stuck out a little; just enough to make a convenient hook for the CD when I dropped it down my shirt. I took the disk and packed it back into the case. I had a feeling that I would need what was on it later...

**xoxoxoxox**

**Zadavia's POV**

It had been three days since I returned from New Chicago, and I was starting to wonder if Sive was going to contact me again. She did seem very on-edge about me when we first met, but she seemed to be more trusting of me after we talked for a while.

_And yet,_ I thought to myself, _it bothers me that she avoided telling me anything about her past._

I decided to search for her through Missing Persons and other assorted databases. I pulled up the browser and typed "Sive" into the box for the first name. I clicked on the box for the last name and stopped.

_She never told me her last name. _

I sighed, annoyed at myself. _How could I have forgotten something so important?_

_I'll be angry with myself later._ I typed in the physical characteristics that applied, checked the "Anthro" box, and hit search.

_At least Sive is a fairly uncommon name,_ I thought. _And yet, maybe a little _too_ uncommon._ No results came up. I widened my search options and tried again. Same result. I thinned and thinned out my search criteria, until eventually I only had the first name box filled out, and still no results. If she was a runaway, then no one missed her.

I jumped a little when my communicator started beeping; I was so lost in thought, it startled me. I pushed the button that re-routed the image to a large screen on the wall, and I was pleasantly surprised when Sive's image appeared.

"Hello, Sive," I said. "I was starting to worry that I wouldn't hear from you again."

"Yeah, sorry about that. I had _another _run-in with some people that I... Well, let's just say I don't like them, they don't like me, and we both want the other party gone," she explained.

"Is this related to the person who's after you?"

"Yeah, kinda…"

"Why is this person after you?"

"Honestly; I have no idea. But, seriously, stop worrying about it. I've been avoiding him successfully for years now. Can we change the subject?"

I didn't want to, but Sive wasn't going to tell me anything else, so I skipped to the point. "Do you have an answer as to joining yet?"

"Well..." she began. "It's kinda the same as before. I mean, I still don't know much about what being a _superhero _would entail, and on top of that, I don't know anyone on the team other than what you told me. I would be kind of... _Awkward,_ I guess. These guys have been together for a couple of _years_ now, and I'm not sure how putting in a seventh member would go with them."

"I assure you, they would be ecstatic about a new member. Actually, they already are," I explained reassuringly. She cocked her eyebrow. "I already told them a little about you, and they were _very_ excited about the possibility of another member."

"Oh, man..." Sive mumbled to herself. "You see, my biggest worry is actually being put in the public spotlight."

"_Really_?" I asked in a disbelieving tone. "Most people _dream_ of being in the public spotlight. What do you have to worry about?"

"It would make it considerably easier for the guy who's after me to track me down. Even if I was with a team of superheroes all the time, I'd be putting them in potential danger, and I don't know if I want to risk that."

"They've been through worse," I reassured.

"Oh, I'm sure this would be new to them," she replied vaguely.

"They can handle it," I replied, sure that they could handle whatever one man could do. "As to your other concern, I would prefer to talk to you in-person about that, but I'm not sure if I will be able to."

"Why?" Sive asked.

"You see, I'm not from this planet," I explained. "I come from a planet called Freleng, where I am technically the ruler."

"Then why are you here exactly?" Sive asked skeptically.

"Because of my brother," I explained. "You see, he tried causing a universal, never-ending war, and I stopped him. He's been after me ever since. But, that doesn't explain why I can't meet you," I said, getting back-on-track. "Currently, two of Freleng's allies are threatening war on each other, and I need to go there to try to keep the peace. This will take me about a week, possibly more. But, I would like to send someone in my stead to meet you." I had just learned the news an hour earlier, but I had only just made the connection.

"Such as...?" Sive asked, starting to become weary.

"One of the Loonatics," I replied. Sive relaxed at this. "I'm not sure which as of yet; whichever one the rest could manage without for a few days."

"A few days?" Sive asked.

"They would stay in a hotel, of course," I reassured. "I think that having one of them get to know you a little would get rid of your worry of not fitting in."

"Alright," Sive said. "Just make sure that whoever you send knows that there aren't any 5-star accommodations around here or anything."

"I'll make sure they know," I responded. "Are you okay with this?" I knew that she was still unsure about me, and I wanted to make sure that this wouldn't affect how much she trusted me.

"Yeah, sure," she replied. "Should I meet whoever it is somewhere?"

"Yes, but I was hoping you'd say where," I explained. "Whoever I send will most likely get there Wednesday night."

"How about Thursday, at the library, at maybe eleven o'clock?"

"That'll work," I replied. "And I have one other question for you: What is your last name?"

"Goodbye," she said in a sing-song, joking voice as she ended the communication.

_So maybe she doesn't want to be found...? _I thought._ I wonder what happened to her to make her not trust anyone... _

**A/N: Testing out the new longer chapter here, but this one would have been this long, anyway. I had to put all of this in here, or I would have been **_**really**_** behind. If anyone thinks that this is **_**too**_** long, then please tell me. I think it may be a bit long, but that could be just me. Anyways, for those of you with questions, almost all of them will be answered in the coming chapters, and the ones that aren't will be in a different story. R&R!**


	8. Ch 7 Traveling!

**A/N: Being totally out-of-character for me, I'm going to keep this brief. First of all: Yes, I did change my summary. Again. But, this one is more accurate, and I like accuracy. Most of the time. Like, 63.5% of the time. Kinda. **

**AND! …This is near the half-way mark of this story. Yay! And I almost totally have the next one mapped out… I just can't figure out my villain… DX Those guys can be **_**so**_** hard to think of…**

**DISCLAIMER: I OWN SIVE! AND THIS STORY! **_**NOBODY ELSE DOES! **_**…Everything else belongs to other people. XD**

Ch 7 Traveling!**  
**

**Zadavia's POV**

I had just seen a story on the evening news, and it made me furious. It was about an "Unconfirmed rumor of a seventh Loonatic." I knew who was behind this, and I wasn't very happy with him.

I pushed a button on a control pad that immediately contacted the Loonatics, and did not have to wait very long for an image of all of the Loonatics to appear.

"Loonatics," I said in greeting.

"Hey, Zadavia," said Ace.

"So-who's-cauing-trouble-where-are-they-and-what-are-they-doing," Rev asked.

"Actually, I just want to have a word with all of you," I explained. "But first, would all of you except Duck step into another room?"

Duck looked like I was about to kill him. I had thought of doing so on multiple occasions, but it would have been too much trouble on my part.

"Sure thing, Zadavia," Ace responded with a knowing look. They had obviously seen the news report as well, and knew that Duck was behind it. He always tried to get on TV, even if it meant giving out information that really should not have gotten out. All of the Loonatics, except Duck, left the room, and I waited until after they had closed the door to the other room to start yelling at him.

**xoxoxoxox**

**Lexi's POV**

"Hey, Lex, can ya hear anythin'?" Ace asked me. We all would've loved to see Duck get chewed out by the boss, but Zadavia never let us see her loose her cool.

"Uh-huh," I responded. I could easily hear Zadavia from the other room, and I relayed what I could to the rest of the guys. And by 'what I could,' I mean 'what I felt comfortable saying out loud.' Zadavia was scary when she was mad.

After a few minutes, I heard Zadavia say, "Lexi, please tell the others that they come back now." She knew that I could hear her.

"Come on guys," I said, walking back into the room. The others followed me in.

It was really hard not to laugh when we saw Duck. He was sitting in one of the chairs, hugging himself, rocking a little, and had his eyes wide open. It was a pretty funny sight.

Zadavia started talking after Duck had finally snapped out of it. "First things first: The news story. I'm going to keep this brief: I don't want anything else getting out about this. At least, not until we receive a definite 'yes' from Sive."

"Has she contacted you yet, by any chance?" I asked. I was really hoping that Zadavia would hear from her soon. All of us did; we were really excited about the possibility of another member.

"A few hours ago, actually," Zadavia replied happily. "You all were out at the time, and I wanted to wait until you got back."

"Really-oh-boy-what-did-she-say?" Rev asked, talking faster than usual due to his excitement.

"Her answer remains unchanged as of right now, but I think that she is starting to lean toward a 'yes.'" Zadavia explained. "Actually, that is what I wanted to talk about. I wanted to go to New Chicago again, to talk to Sive in-person, but because of the fact that I need to leave for Freleng tomorrow, I can't. I was hoping one of you would go in my stead."

"Never fear, boss lady!" Duck interjected, trying to regain face from his earlier stunt with the press. "I'll go for you, and come back with another team member!"

"Duck, you are the _last_ person I would send," Zadavia said, thoroughly deflating Duck's ego. "We want Sive to _join_, remember? And I already know who I would like to send."

We all thought it would be Rev; he was the friendliest guy on the planet. He could probably get anyone to trust him: That is, if he talked slow enough for people to understand him.

Which is why we were all surprised when Zadavia said, "Lexi, I would like you to go."

"Uh, r-r-really?" I stuttered. I couldn't believe that she chose me.

"You don't have to go if you don't want to," Zadavia reassured. "I just thought that you would be able to connect with Sive better than any of the rest. No offense meant."

"None-taken-I-mean-Lexi-is-really-the-best-choice-for-this," Rev stated.

"Wow, Zadavia. I'd love to!" I chirped. I loved the thought of meeting Sive; Zadavia made her sound really nice.

"Great! Do you think you'll be ready to leave tomorrow?" she asked.

"So soon!" I said, slightly startled by the abruptness. "No, that's alright. I'll be ready."

"Great. Meet me at the train station, tomorrow at 11:15."

"Got it," I replied.

"Good. And for the rest of you, I will depart immediately after Lexi. I apologize for needing to leave every other week, but I assure you, it's all necessary," Zadavia explained.

"Don't-worry-about-it-Zadavia-we-can-manage-for-a-few-days-and-besides-who-knows-what-could-happen-if-you-didn't-go-I-mean-stopping-an-interplanetary-war-is-really-important-and-besides-we-can-manage-for-a-few-days-like-last-time-or-when-" Tech grabbed his beak.

"Anyways," Zadavia began, "Lexi, I will see you tomorrow, and I will see the rest of you in about a week. Until then, Zadavia out."

**xoxoxoxox**

**Lexi's POV**

It was 10:45, and Ace and I were just pulling up to the train station. I said that I could go alone, but he insisted on giving me a ride. I didn't really mind, though; the few moments that I got alone with Ace were nice. I had said goodbye to the rest of the guys before we left.

He pulled up to the curb and we both hopped off of his Zoomatrix. He opened the trunk and got my suitcase out for me. That feature was something that I was really glad Tech had thought of when building the bikes; trunk space. The seats flipped open to reveal a decent size trunk. It was a handy feature that someone really should have thought of long ago.

"I guess I'll see you in a few days, then," I said, turning to Ace. "You guys can manage without me for that long, right?"

"It won't be easy, but we'll try," Ace responded with a grin. I punched him in the arm and adjusted my backpack. There was no way I could get everything to fit in one suitcase, and everything else I wanted to bring almost made my backpack explode, so it wasn't exactly a light load.

"Hey, Lex?" he said tentatively. He looked a little uncomfortable. "Just, ah... Just be careful out there, alright?"

I giggled a little; Ace never showed it, but he could be the biggest worry-wart in certain situations. I hugged him, gave him a quick kiss on the nose, and said, "Don't worry about me; I'll be fine."

He returned the hug and gave me a goodbye kiss. Ace and I had been going out for a little less than two months, but we weren't a big public couple. Once the media heard about it, we were big for about two hours; but, then there was some major political scandal, and we were old news. Neither of us minded at all, though.

I had been hoping that he would ask me out for a while, but it turned out that he was pretty nervous. He had to get advice from Rev, who was the only one on the team that had ever had a real-live girlfriend before (Ace had other girlfriends before me, but he was still nervous, anyways.) Once Ace finally did ask me out, everyone on the team approved, including Zadavia. Even Duck agreed; so long as he didn't see any 'mushy-lovey-dovey stuff.'

After a few moments, we separated and I was on my way.

It didn't take me very long to find Zadavia; she was pretty easy to spot due to the pink outfit she always wore. She told me what she wanted me to do on the way to the terminal. It consisted of a lot of questions she hoped Sive would answer, including the details of her powers, what her last name was, and a whole mess of questions about her past.

"It _is_ a little strange; how little she's told me," Zadavia explained, "But she does have trust issues. I think it has to do with her past, but for obvious reasons I can't know for sure. I'm hoping that you can break through this artificial barrier that she has put up."

"I'll do my best," I replied.

"Good luck, Lexi!" Zadavia called to me as I was swept away by the crowd boarding the train. I scanned my ticket when I passed the machine, and went to find an empty cabin.

It was a nice train. It was the kind that could be used for overnight travel, but my trip would only take a few hours. It had plush cabins made for up to eight people, four in the smaller ones, and it had a red-ornate color theme, which was not seen very often anymore.

I finally found an empty cabin, one of the smaller ones, so I went in, left my suitcase in a corner, (I could _not _lift it onto a luggage rack,) and grabbed my magazines and music player before tossing my backpack on the rack. I stretched out on one of the two benches and put my feet up; I had about three hours until my stop, and I was going to get all of the rest I could before getting there; it was going to be a tough week.

**xoxoxoxox**

**Aaron's POV**

It was already 1:10 AM, and I was getting worried. Naomi wasn't usually late, and I wondered where she was. Thankfully, a taxi pulled a few minutes later, and Naomi got out of it, grabbed her bag, and ran over to where I was standing, tripping twice before she got over to me. She really was a klutz sometimes.

"Sorry," she said, out of breath. "The cab driver was late."

"Never mind that," I said. "Now that you're here, we need to leave." I grabbed one of her bags and walked into the park. The park could be a little creepy at night, but there wasn't anyone around.

We walked deep into the park and eventually came out the other side. Here, there was a playground and a few well-known monuments of famous people. We walked to the oldest monument in the park, a stone statue of someone who lived during the years 2543-2659, but it was impossible to say who it was because the plaque on the base was too rusted over.

I put on a pair of work gloves and walked up to the statue. I grabbed one edge of the plaque and pushed with all my might. It fell over onto the lawn, revealing a hollow space behind the plaque. It was where I had hid my motorcycle the day before. I had to hide it somewhere where Dad and his contacts (a.k.a. spies,) wouldn't find it, and behind the plaque was the first place I thought of.

I rolled out my black and red bike and put it near the edge of the park. It was the newest version of an MV Augusta; it had enough room for two people, and it had the new trunk feature. Some guy who's name had something to do with some kind of dog first came up with it on his custom bike, and all motorcycle companies had been copying him ever since. The bike also costed a small fortune, but that never mattered much to me; I was paid way more than I needed, and I hardly ever bought anything.

I tossed the gloves, now covered in rust, and grabbed my bag out of the hole. I put it in the trunk, did the same with Naomi's bags, and closed it. I grabbed the two helmets I brought, and walked towards Naomi. I didn't bother trying to replace the plaque; it was too heavy.

"Alright," I said, handing a helmet to Naomi. "We're all set, I have the disk, and this," I said, pulling what looked like a credit card out of my pocket. It wasn't actually a credit card; it wasn't associated to a bank account, and therefore couldn't be traced. It was essentially a limitless gift card, and I had put just under 100,000 dollars on it. "It should take us a little over a week to get to Acmetropolis."

She almost screeched, before catching herself and whispering instead, "A week? I know we're on the other end of the country, but come on!"

"We should avoid major roadways," I explained. "You know how far Dad's influence spreads; he could find us at any time. Avoiding expressways and such will help us get more time under the radar."

She still didn't look too happy about it, but she didn't say anything else on the matter. I hated to think of what her reaction would be when she figured out we'd most likely be staying in motels while traveling, if not pulling all-nighters.

"We'd better go," I said, looking over my shoulder. I got on the motorcycle, started it up, and let Naomi get on behind me. I moved slowly over the grass and once I got onto the pavement, took off at 60mph.

_Just seven days to go; seven days until we got to Acmetropolis. Just hang on until then Sive_, I thought. _I'm not letting you down this time._

**A/N: What will happen when Lexi gets to New Chicago? Will Naomi and Aaron make it to Acmetropolis without Solomon finding them first? Find out in the next chapter! (Well, the part about Lexi, anyway.)**

**I plan on having my first action scene in either the next chapter, or the one after. Depends on how things turn out.**

**R&R!**


	9. Ch 8 Issues

**A/N: I'M SORRY! I updated **_**really super late!**_** I know it, and I'm sorry, but I just started driving, and it's really hard to not take out mailboxes on the side of the road, or the odd pedestrian, and they have us go at it for an hour and a half at my Driver's Ed place… DX And I've had a CRAPLOAD of homework! And, 98.7% is from Science and English put together, and Science is one of my worst subjects, so I've been pretty busy. But…. I **_**WILL**_** get another chapter up this weekend. I promise. Why? You'll see. **

**And to my family, who **_**really**_** wanted to read my story…. HI! (I'm a lot spazzier on the internet…)**

**One last thing: Just so everybody knows, I have anonymous reviews enabled. So, if you don't have an account, you can still review. **_**And I would really appreciate your reviews!**_** To my family: Please review! Just click the little button at the bottom that says review! K, thx.**

**Now, on with the show! Or, story… Whatever. **

**DISCLAIMER: HEY! GUESS WHAT? I still don't own anything.**

Ch. 8 Issues…

**Solomon's POV**

I should have been suspicious from the beginning; Naomi never got sick enough to not come into work, much less leave early. And then two days later, Aaron disappeared. He wasn't answering either of his phones, he wasn't responding to any emails, and when I had my agents break into his apartment, he wasn't there. After a thorough search, it was obvious that he had made preparations to fall off the map for a while. After searching through Naomi's also empty apartment, we reached a similar conclusion. We put the pieces together and realized that the two of them were up to something. Whenever Aaron and Naomi were involved in something, it meant Sive, and when something involved Sive, _I_ was interested.

I gave Aaron's computers to my personal IT division so they could hack into them and show us what he was doing. His home computer showed a possibility of where they were going: Alberdeen, a small city about a two days' drive away. There wasn't much there, but I knew it meant something to Aaron; it was the place his mother grew up in, it was the place I met her in, it was the place we got married in, it was where he was born and raised, it was where Sive was born, and it was where life as he knew it was ripped apart by yours truly.

Almost all of the others immediately thought that that was where he was going, but they forgot that I taught him everything he knows. He was smarter than that, though; I taught him how to lay a false trail, and he obviously remembered it.

At that point, all of the people I had involved in The Project were in our wing of the building, and that was about 350 people. I made sure we had our own private wing, and only those I had involved in The Project had access to it. Even Aaron didn't have access, and he was my right hand man whenever the company was involved, but I didn't put him in The Project for a reason. He was already more involved than he knew, and he didn't even know it existed.

The Project was my own creation: It was my means for carrying out my plan, which wouldn't go into action until I got that key. I knew from the beginning that I couldn't do the job alone, so I made many promises of money, power, and control. But mostly money. Eventually, after I received total control of the company when my father died, I started The Project. Unfortunately, we hadn't made much progress, and we had started almost ten years ago.

At that point, we were all in the lab, watching the large screen as a group of hackers from The Project's IT group made their way through Aaron's firewall on his work computer. I was pacing, the hackers were hacking, and everyone else was just trying to stay out of my way. I was anxious, and not without good reason: I had taught Aaron everything he knew about manipulation, keeping the law on your side, how to get what you want, etc, but when it came to technology, he taught himself all of that, and he knew more than anyone else in the whole company. After factoring in his newfound technopathy powers from the meteor, I was surprised that none of the others were as on edge as I was.

"Almost there, sir," said one of the hackers. "Just a little more code to write, and then we'll have everything on the computer."

"I'll believe it when I see it," I growled.

We all watched as numbers and letters flashed by on the screen, when it suddenly went blank. I thought something had gone wrong, but the hackers had relieved, almost joyous looks on their faces. The rest of us were confused, until the screen lit up again showing the desktop image of Aaron's computer; a partially underwater image showing fish, and a small island with a palm tree, a boat, and a man fishing in said boat, with various icons dotting the screen. It was the standard screen saver image of all of the company computers.

"Excellent," I said, reading over the icons. "Go to the Personal Documents icon."

The hacker that was currently in control clicked in the icon. And he clicked it again. And again. Nothing happened.

"What the heck?" mumbled the hacker.

Then, the strangest thing any of us had ever seen started happening; the icons started falling to the bottom of the screen. We just stared in shocked silence. When the screen saver fish went belly up and started floating to the top of the water, the hackers started panicking. They tried fixing it, but all of the computers showing Aaron's screen were locked, any other computers were unable to access it. The hackers were all still trying to fix it when the boat flipped, sending the fisherman into the water where he disappeared. The sky also turned red, and the clouds and sun disappeared. We all just stared in shocked silence, watching either the hackers run around like trapped mice, or the screen as the palm tree caught fire. Then, what was left of the mangled image looked as if it was melting, and it revealed a pre-recorded video of Aaron.

"Nice try, Dad," he said smugly. "But you'll have to do better than that. You're not stopping me this time, and there's nothing you can do about it. Oh, and here's a little goodbye gift."

His image disappeared and was replaced with the blue "your hard drive has just been wiped," screen. We were all in shock; Aaron had managed to outsmart me. That had _never_ happened before.

Then, it got worse. All of the computers, showing Aaron's screen or not, closed everything and went to the desktop. Then, the icons started falling, the screen saver fish were now dead screen saver fish, and so on. All of the screens followed the show put on by Aaron to a T, except for the part showing the video. Eventually all of the hard drives were wiped, and my pager started going off like a machine gun. They were all messages from all around the company, and they were all the same; all of the computers in the building had been wiped by a screen saver fish killing, palm tree burning virus.

"Nice job, Aaron," I mumbled to myself. "Maybe I taught you a little _too_ much."

**xoxoxoxox**

**Lexi's POV**

I got to New Chicago at around three o'clock. The train station was in the Financial District, but I needed to get to the Navy District, and there was no way to do that using public transportation; the main part of the city really tried to separate itself from the Navy District to save face. Fortunately, Zadavia knew that, too, and got me a rental, which was waiting for me outside the station.

It was just a plain, old, grey-blue compact car. It wasn't really my style, but it was less likely to be stolen in that neighborhood.

I reached my hotel in about 45 minutes. The building itself wasn't all too pretty, and it wasn't much better on the inside, but I couldn't say that Zadavia didn't warn me. I checked in, got a key for a room on the fourth floor, and went upstairs.

It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be; there was a double bed, an old TV, a small table with a fake floral arrangement, and a small bathroom. I was worried that there would be rats or something, but it was clean and cozy, if not a little cramped. And maybe a little too beige.

I set my bags down and flopped down on the bed. It was almost 4 o'clock at that point, and I already knew what I was going to do; call Ace and tell him I made it in one piece, find a place nearby to eat, and then turn in early. The next day would be awesome; I was finally going to meet Sive!

**xoxoxoxox**

**Lexi's POV**

It was about 10:55, and after about 45 minutes of wandering around and getting bad directions from the locals, half of whom didn't even know they _had_ a library, I had finally made it. There was no one around, and it was pretty quiet. It was also really dark out; there was a big storm that was supposed to start soon, and the clouds made it dark enough for the few operating streetlights to come on. I was just standing outside of the door, looking down one side of the street, waiting to see Sive.

"Hello, Lexi," said a voice behind me suddenly. I didn't hear anyone walk up behind me, but I knew who it was by the voice; it was a voice that I had hoped to never hear again, a voice that belonged to a certain E.T. in a tutu.

"_Melvin_?" I shouted, turning around to face him. He was about 5 feet away from me, floating in a Martian chariot led by his dog, Sergeant Sirius, at about face-level, which for him was 2 feet off the ground. "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be on Mars?"

"And miss my chance for revenge? Not a chance!" he explained smugly. I bet he was smirking, too, but I couldn't exactly tell. "I've been waiting for months to get my chance! You destroyed two of my ships, and you actually thought you'd get away with it!"

"Well, considering how Ace managed to blow you up with your own bomb-"

"That was an accident!" he whined. "And besides; you're the one I want revenge on! _You_ blew up my ships! And now I've got you all alone! Your friends can't help you here! Now, I can _finally _destroy you!"

I started to worry a little, but not much. "Oh, yeah? You and what army?" I asked smugly; I could take Melvin in a fight easily, and his robotic dog wasn't intelligent enough to be a worry.

He pointed behind me, and I turned around to see about 10 Martian robots standing, or rather, floating behind me.

"Oh. _That _army."

"Annihilate that bunny!" Melvin ordered. The robots immediately reacted to his command and charged me.

_And I was looking forward to a few days without fighting,_ I thought as I jumped into the air, and then landed on the shoulders of one robot. It reached up to grab me, so I jumped again onto another robot's head. I jumped off of that one, and landed a few feet behind them.

I felt the familiar feeling of energy in my head, aimed, and fired a brain blast at the robots. It hit three of them; one of them dead-on, and the others were hit hard enough for there to be some serious damage.

There _should_ have been serious damage, anyway. The other two weren't even scratched, and the one I hit dead-on had barely any damage done to it. It was still floating above the ground and ready for a fight, along with the rest of it's friends, who had by that time turned back to face me and were pointing their fingers at me. I knew enough about Martian technology to know that they put their robot's lasers in their fingers, taking the term 'point and shoot' to a new level.

_Lousy Martian technology…_ I thought, diving behind some trash cans to avoid being incinerated.

I stood up, sent out a powerful brain-blast at the nearest robot, and held it for as long as possible, which was increasingly difficult due to the fact that the other robots were starting to surround me. Finally, just before I was about to give out, the robot exploded, damaging the ones next to it even more than my brain-blasts did.

_So they do more damage to each other than I do… Then that means all I have to do is make one blow up when it's near other ones!_

The only problem with this plan was the fact that I didn't have enough energy left in me for another long, powerful blast. The robots started firing at me again, so I just started jumping and swerving, trying to avoid getting hit, but as I got more and more tired, I started moving slower. It didn't take too long for me to move slow enough past one of the robots for it to grab me by the leg and throw me against a wall. It threw me hard enough to make me see stars, and by the time my vision cleared again, the robots had me surrounded.

I heard Melvin laugh somewhere behind the wall of robots. "You're no match for Martian technology! But really, nice job. I wasn't expecting you to break any of them, and yet you took one down, almost two! But now, your time is up. Robots! _Ready!"_

All of the remaining robots simultaneously pointed at me, and I knew that it would _not_ end well.

"_Aim!"_ They all started charging a laser blast at the end of their fingers.

I just shut my eyes and waited for the end. There was no way out, and I was too exhausted to go down fighting.

**A/N: CLIFFHANGER! Yes, I did it. I left you all hanging. So, there! This is why I'll try to get my next chapter up ASAP. Unfortunately, I haven't even started it yet… Which I usually do before posting anther chapter… Hmm… Oh, well, whatever. I'll get it up. And if not, I'll eat my socks. **

**R&R!**


	10. Ch 9 Pesk Little Aliens

**A/N: MY SOCKS ARE SAVED! I worked on this all after school yesterday, and all day today, and here it is! *faints on top of keyboard* This one was so **_**long!**_

**And a quick note on something in this chapter: I have nothing against the name Melvin. Nothing at all.**

**DISCLAIMER: You know the drill. I don't own anything, etc. etc.**

Ch 9 Pesky Little Aliens…

**Sive's POV**

I knew that something wasn't right when I saw some kind of dark mass fly through the sky. I got curious, so I did what all people in the movies do that usually end in some dangerous, life-threatening situation: I followed it.

I ran in the direction it flew off in, weaving around the buildings, and sometimes through them, to try to keep an eye on it. I didn't pay attention to where I was until it landed on the other side of a couple of lines of buildings that I passed almost every day.

_The library...?_ I thought. _What would it want over there?_

I was going to find the answer to that myself. I ran to a narrow alley in between two of the buildings. There was a dumpster, a few trash cans, and clotheslines connecting the two buildings, one line per floor, and because there were four floors, that meant four lines.

I ran to get momentum, and jumped up on top of the dumpster. I jumped up again, kicking off the wall to get more height, and grabbed the first clothesline. In true gymnastics style, I swung around the line I had once, let go at the top of the swing, wrapped my legs around the next one, and made a half-flip upwards, grabbing the next line. I unbent my legs and swung forward with all my might. It was enough to let me do a handstand on the line I was currently holding onto, wrap my legs around the one above me, and pull myself up. It was just a quick hop to get onto the roof of the building next to me.

I was two buildings over from where I wanted to be, so I ran and hopped the gaps until I was on the roof directly across the street from the library. I crouched down behind the short ledge surrounding the roof, bent my ears back against my head so I wasn't a dead-giveaway, and peered over the ledge at the scene across the street. What I saw confused me, irked me, and made me wonder what the _hell_ I was getting myself into.

The street was a mess; there were craters everywhere, and the trash cans looked... Melted. There were random parts of metal and machinery lying around, and the darkness from the black clouds overhead didn't help make the scene look any better. That wasn't what I was paying attention to, though. I found the short, mouthless guy riding on a chariot led by a robotic dog far more interesting. He seemed to be controlling a hoard of robots that had something trapped against a wall. After a quick count, I saw that there were ten robots, but I still couldn't see what they had cornered.

The short guy, whom I had nicknamed "Shorty," moved so he was standing, or floating, I guess, in his chariot, right behind the robots and laughed, saying, "You're no match for Martian technology! But really, nice job. I wasn't expecting you to break any of them, and yet you took one down, almost two! But now, your time is up. Robots! _Ready_!"

The robots moved a bit so they weren't standing in front of another one of them, and pointed at whatever they had against the wall. Because of how they moved, I could see what, or in this case, who they had cornered. I almost didn't recognize her, but the uniform made it so obvious, I mentally kicked myself for not recognizing her right away; it was Lexi Bunny.

"_Aim_!" That was when I figured out why the robots were pointing, and where the craters and melted trash cans came from.

I knew I had to do something before Shorty got to '_Fire_!' so I, being so bad with battle strategy, did the only thing I could think of: Baseball.

I stood up and felt electrical energy run through my arms. I focused it to my hands, and formed a concentrated orb of pure electrical energy. In true 20th century MLB pitcher form, I took the orb in one hand, and threw it with all my might at Shorty, which made the orb emit an ear-splitting thunder crack.

...That is, I _tried_ to throw it at Shorty, but my aim was off, and it hit a robot standing about two feet away from him. The energy was too much for it, and it blew up in a flash of white light. It damaged the other robots standing near it, and knocked Shorty out of his chariot while simultaneously sending his robot dog flying.

"Damn, I missed," I muttered, ducking back down and enjoying the view as utter confusion ensued.

Shorty was trying to get his dog back under control, the robots were freaking out due to the residual energy from the orb hanging around the area and temporarily messing with their circuitry, and Lexi ran across the street so she was standing in front of the building I was on, though she didn't seem to have seen me.

"How did you do that?" yelled Shorty, after he had gotten all of his robots back under control. "And why didn't you just do it earlier?"

"Uhh, maybe because that wasn't me...?" Lexi replied very sarcastically. "Not that I'm complaining."

"Then if it wasn't you..." began Shorty, pausing to think. "I know! It was a freak lightning strike from this storm! You just got lucky, and it won't happen again! Logic states that lightning never strikes the same place twice!"

By that time, I was sick of hiding and decided to try to end this fight quickly. I formed two more electricity orbs in my hands and stood up.

"Allow me to mess with your logic!" I yelled, throwing the orbs. Two more lightning cracks and flashes of light later, Shorty was down three more robots. There were six left.

"Get that dog!" Shorty yelled from his position on the ground. I had apparently sent him flying again, and the dog and chariot were nowhere to be found.

"I'm not a dog!" I yelled, using my phasing ability to fall through the roof and the floors below. I did it mainly to get to the ground floor quickly; the robots were on the fritz again, so there was no way they could shoot at me. I hit the ground floor and ran outside, much to the confusion of the people still in the building.

"It looked like you needed a hand," I explained to the flummoxed bunny outside.

"And I'm still not complaining," she replied with a smirk. "Got any other tricks up your sleeve? Those guys are going to snap out of it soon."

"Well, if we do combined attacks with our powers, then maybe we could get rid of them without using all of our energy on just a couple of them."

"Sounds great," she replied, eyes glowing pink.

"Yours do that too?" I asked, my own eyes glowing green.

"All of ours do. It happens whenever we're about to get into a big battle, or about to use our powers a lot."

"Cool," I replied, turning to face the now re-organized robots and Shorty.

"Alright, so maybe I don't have you alone," Shorty began, "But I'll still win this fight!"

"With six damaged robots and a muy loco dog?" I asked skeptically, and partially in Spanish. Anyone that hung out with Rio and the gang enough would start randomly speaking Spanish. "Dream on!"

"Cocky, aren't you?"

"Nah, just realistic."

"Ohhh, you annoy me! Robots, get rid of them!"

And so, the fight began. Lexi dodged left and I dodged right as the robots charged. We came back together behind the group.

"That one?" Lexi asked, gesturing towards a particularly badly damaged robot.

"That one," I confirmed, charging my energy. We released a blast at the same time at the same robot, and it was more than enough to make it explode. Five to go.

I looked over at Lexi and started to worry when I saw how tired she was; she was breathing hard, her ears were drooping a little and she was resting her hands on her knees. I knew this had to end soon, or Lexi would give out.

"Maybe we should try to get them to destroy each other..." I ventured. Lexi looked at me like I was crazy. "Just hear me out. Those guys aren't exactly the smartest things on the planet. If we can disorient them enough, and split them up, then we should be able to get them to take each other out."

"Yeah, that could work."

"Glad you think so," I replied, running to the right. I heard Lexi take off to the left behind me, and the robots take off after us. After I ran about 15 feet, I turned around and saw that three of the robots had come after me, and the other two had followed Lexi. I didn't exactly have time to worry about her, though, because the robots didn't leave me a second to spare.

I ducked and rolled out of the way as all three took a shot at me, and missed by a mile. I sent a small, not very concentrated blast at the robot furthest to the right. It dodged left, and crashed into the other two, sending them all into the ground.

_Like I said, not the smartest things on the planet_, I thought, looking around to see where the blast I shot out went.

"Thanks!" I head Lexi yell. I turned to look and saw that one of the robots that she was dealing with was now a smoldering pile of metal parts on the ground.

"Oops," I mumbled. "Well, _that _wasn't supposed to happen. But, it's not a bad thing, either."

I heard the whirring of machinery behind me, and ducked just in time as one of the robots swung his arm around like a helicopter hard enough to have brained me. It's arm kept going, and hit another one in the face.

"Why do these robots never have a _reasonable_ amount of artificial intelligence?" Shorty moaned. "I'm not asking for a _lot_, just _enough_!"

I laughed and ran back a few feet to get away from the two disoriented robots in front of me, not taking my eyes off of them. Which was why I didn't notice the third robot sneak up behind me.

"Wha- _Hey_!" I yelled as it grabbed me, pinning my arms to my sides. I was just about to phase out of it's grip, when a pink blast of energy came out of nowhere and blew it's head off. It was a strong enough attack to break the robot, but light enough not to blow it, and me, to smithereens.

"Darn it, I missed!" I heard Lexi shout somewhere behind me.

"I'm glad ya did!" I yelled, darting away as the other two robots started firing at me again.

"If you want something done right..." Shorty mumbled, shaking his head and covering his eyes. He took out his own laser gun and yelled, "_Open fire_!"

He started firing, and the robots just started shooting in every direction. It was starting to get difficult; avoiding three mindless robots and a trigger happy alien wasn't exactly an easy task.

I was jumping, ducking, and diving the whole time, not even paying attention to where I was going; I was just trying not to get killed. Eventually, during a slight lull in the fighting, I was backing away from an approaching robot, when I bumped into something. I turned around and was face-to-face with Lexi. We both looked around and realized that we were surrounded; no matter where we moved, if they all shot at us, we wouldn't make it.

"Now I've got you! And your little friend, too!" Shorty jeered.

"Sorry I got you into this," Lexi said to me.

"Actually, I think I kinda jumped in headfirst," I replied. "How humiliating: Defeated by a pipsqueak in a tutu."

"You are _so_ rude!" Shorty yelled. "I will enjoy destroying both of you!"

"Got any other bright ideas?" Lexi asked as they all started charging a laser blast. I looked around at where the robots and Shorty were standing/floating, and it hit me.

"Yeah, one," I said, grabbing onto Lexi and activating my phasing powers just as all of the robots, and Shorty, released their blasts. The four blasts went through us, and continued until they all eventually hit another robot, or Shorty, and blew up their respective targets, or sent them flying.

"Well that worked well," Lexi said as I let go of her.

We heard something overhead and looked up to see Shorty climbing into his chariot, which had just reappeared with the robotic dog. "I'll get you next time, Lexi! And you, too... Er..."

"Congratulations, you have absolutely no idea who you're out to get," I yelled up to him sarcastically. "Why don't you just leave while you still have the chance, short stack?"

He just glared and took off without another word.

"I hope he gets struck by lightning on his way out..." Lexi mumbled. "That Melvin... He's such a nuisance!"

"His name's _Melvin_? How original," I replied, turning to look at Lexi. "Hey, what happened to you?" Her arm had a gash on it and was bleeding.

"Oh, it's nothing," she reassured, glancing at it. "One of those lasers nicked me. I'll be fine."

"We should still get it looked at. And before you ask, I really, really don't recommend the hospitals around here."

"Then where do you go when you get hurt?"

"I know a guy," I said matter-of-factly. "We'd better get going, though. It's gonna start raining soon."

"Good idea," she responded. "And now that I think about it, we haven't officially met. I'm Lexi, Lexi Bunny."

"Sive," I replied, shaking hands.

**xoxoxoxox**

**Sive's POV**

"Lucy, I'm home!" I said in a sing-song voice, walking into the small café.

"Hello, Sive!" responded a round, short woman in a red and white striped uniform behind the counter. "I haven't seen you in almost a week! What've you been up to?"

I took a seat at one of the stools in at the counter. "Oh, you know, this and that."

"Met any cute boys lately?" She asked me in her southern drawl, playing with her bush-like ginger hair.

"No, Maggie," I replied sternly. Lexi sat down tentatively next to me. "Actually, I was wondering if you could do a patch job on my friend's arm, here."

"Oh, well, let me take a look," she said, coming around the counter. "Dear Lord, girl, what did you do?"

"Just your average robot fight," Lexi replied.

"Jesus, Sive, please tell me you weren't involved in this," Maggie said, looking worried.

"Cross my heart," I lied. She would worry about me every second of every day if I let her, and I tried my best not to give her a reason.

"Well, sweetie, I can fix this easy. Just let me go find the first aid kit." And with that, she went into the back room.

"And she is...?" Lexi began.

"Her name is Maggie. She owns this place, and if you get on her good side, she can be a big help. She's good with medical stuff, and if you're close enough friends with her, and stuck in the right situation, she'll give you lots of meals on the house."

"That's nice of her," Lexi replied, a look of respect etched on her face.

"That's why I don't come here all the time. I don't want to put her out of business or anything."

"Oh..."

Maggie came back with her massive first aid kit, and in a few minutes, Lexi's arm was all fixed up.

"Wow, thanks so much!" Lexi said, inspecting the expert bandaging.

"A friend of Sive's is a friend of mine," she explained with a smile. "Now, can I get you girls anything?"

We took a quick look over the menu and ordered; Lexi got a half-salad-half-soup meal, and I just got the soup. Maggie wrote it down on a little notepad and went into the kitchen in the back.

"Alright," Lexi replied, turning to me.

"So, what exactly is the story with... What's-His-Face... Melvin?"

Lexi then told me an interesting story of videogames, Trojan horses, checkers, and the destruction of two space stations.

"Well, you know how to get around," I said sarcastically when her story was over.

"Not that I try too hard," she replied, equally sarcastic.

Our food came then, and while we ate, we talked about this and that with Maggie. After a while, Maggie went into the back room again, and it was just me and Lexi in the main part of the café. By that time, it was pouring rain outside, and Lexi and I had just finished eating when about fifteen teenage boys walked in, soaking wet, breathing as if they had just ran here, and shouting about something. Hearing the racket, Maggie came back out.

"Rio! Leto! Ya'll are making a mess!" Maggie shouted, inspecting the now muddy white tile floor.

"Sorry, Miss Maggie," Rio responded somewhere in the mass of boys. "We were having a game a few blocks away, when it started pouring out."

"What did your mother tell you about playing in the rain?" I asked sarcastically from the counter. That was when they all noticed my presence. Rio poked his head above everyone else and smiled.

"Well, you boys all take a seat somewhere, I'll get the stove on," Maggie grumbled, still unhappy about her floor.

"Thanks, Maggie!" most of the boys said, walking towards the booths and tables to find a seat. Rio and Leto walked over to where Lexi and I were sitting and sat down; Rio next to me, Leto next to him.

"Hey, Perra," Rio said. "I was getting worried about you. We haven't seen you for a few days after that last incident with Du-"

"Yeah, well, I'm alright aren't I?" I asked, cutting him off purposely. Lexi didn't need to hear about Dumb and Dumber yet. "And besides, I've been a little busy. Hey, who won the game?"

"Well, after you took off, it didn't take very long for Leto to feel too injured to play." Rio and I laughed, and Leto thumped Rio in the back of the head and pouted. Lexi just looked confused. "So, we just ended it there, meaning we won!"

"Awesome! Oh, and where are my manners? Lexi, meet Rio and Leto, captains of the first and second best street hockey teams around. Rio, Leto, meet Lexi."

"Hey, I've seen you on the news," Leto stated, seeing Lexi for the first time. "Aren't you part of that superhero team in Acmetropolis? What are you doin' here?"

"Yup, that's me," Lexi said, shaking their hands. "And, I'm here to see if Sive wants to join us."

"You're leaving us, Sive?" Rio asked, faking a look that said 'My mom just died.' "Nah, I'm just messin' with ya. But, seriously, I'd miss you if you left."

"With what she can do, someone was going to come looking for her sooner or later," Leto commented.

"You're leavin' us, sweetie?" Maggie asked, reappearing from the back room.

"Well, none of this is definite yet…" I reassured. "I still don't know all of the details of the job or anything…"

"Speaking of which, maybe I could answer your questions about that?" Lexi asked.

"Not a bad idea," I replied.

While it rained, we talked about what the job would entail. Lexi answered questions from me, Leto, Rio and Maggie, and we answered a few of hers about the neighborhood, how we all knew each other, etc. It was a pleasant conversation.

By the time it stopped raining, almost all of the other boys had left,, and it was getting late in the afternoon.

"Well, I think I should be getting back to my hotel," Lexi said, standing up and stretching out a little. "If I don't call home soon, Ace'll have a heart attack."

"Ooh, is he your boyfriend?" Maggie asked, meaning it as a joke.

"Actually, yes, he is," Lexi replied matter-of-factly. "And when he hears about what happened earlier today, he'll probably have a stroke." We all laughed, but I could tell by the look on Lexi's face that she was serious.

"I'd better be goin', too," Leto stated, looking at the clock. "I told my mom I'd be home an hour ago."

"Aww, goin' home to mommy already?" Rio mocked, earning him another thump on the head. Leto was one of the few who had a full family here, and actually had an apartment.

"I think I'm going to get going, too," I said. "Rio, Leto, Maggie, I'll see you around. Lexi, I'll see you tomorrow."

We all said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. On my way back home, I thought about what happened today, and what I had told Lexi about myself. Honestly, it scared me a little; I had just met her, and yet I trusted her a lot. I knew that I shouldn't do it, but I did anyways. It caused an internal argument with myself.

_She could betray you, you know, _one side of my head argued. _Just like he did, all those years ago._

_But she seems different,_ the other side argued. _She's nice, fun, and saves people's lives on a daily basis for Pete's sake! You can trust her, she won't be working for him._

_But you don't know that for sure, and until you do, assume the worst._

_Or you could live a little._

I gave me such a headache sometimes.

**A/N: I have internal arguments with myself, too… And on that note, Sive is a character that is actually somewhat like myself for a change. Usually, my OC's are very different from me. I just find that interesting…**

**Anyways, hope you liked it! R&R!**


	11. Ch 10 Tomorrows Plans

**A/N: RANT TIME! So, who's heard of the massive snowstorm hitting the Midwestern states of the U.S.A.? Guess who got a snowday? Guess who's gonna be busy digging her garage out of a six foot snowdrift? And the deck? And the sidewalk? Guess who was stuck waiting for a bus outside of school yesterday in blizzard conditions for more than half an hour? Guess who got home at 5:10, when she usually gets home at 4? This girl. Right here. Me? NOT HAPPY. DX I already got started on the deck, and my back and arms REALLY hurt right now… But, it did get me out of school for today, possibly tomorrow as well, and it gave me a chance to finish my chapter, and get started on a few other things I'm thinking about writing, so all in all, I suppose it's a good thing… And we got to have waffles for breakfast… (Mmm, waffles!) But, it almost entirely closed down the city I live in, and we're stuck in the house for a day. *hears sister calling, goes upstairs and looks out window, comes back* And now, some **_**moron**_** just tried driving in this! How **_**stupid**_** can you possibly get! Now, they're stuck in front of our house, in the middle of the street, and when the plows finally decide to show up, they can't do anything. =(**

**Now that I'm done with my rant about the six feet of snow we got (GRRR) I'll try to get back on track. So, this chapter was a bit filler-ish, but the next one will be important. REALLY IMPORTANT! Like, earth-shatteringly important! Like, if you miss it, you'll be lost in the empty void of space for forever, important!**

…**Before I start ranting again, I'll end my note and let everybody read.**

**DISCLAIMER: I'm getting tired of writing these. Just go back to a previous chapter and read what I wrote if you really want to read the disclaimers that badly.**

Ch 10 Tomorrows Plans

**Lexi's POV**

It went exactly how I thought it would. I got back to the hotel, changed out of my uniform, and took almost ten minutes to muster up the courage to call Ace. I knew he wouldn't be happy to hear about what happened, but he had to know.

I dialed the number and waited. He answered on the first ring.

"Hey, Lex! I was startin' ta worry that you'd forget ta call me."

"Never. So, did I miss anything big today?"

"Nothin' we couldn't handle..." He seemed hesitant to continue.

"What happened?"

"Well, Massive reappeared and kinda... Uh... Surprise attacked us."

"Of course, right as I leave..." I mumbled. "Is everybody alright?"

"More or less..." Again, he seemed hesitant to continue.

"Ace..."

"Ya need ta promise me ya won't freak out."

"Ace, what happened?" I asked again, trying to sound stern, but instead sounding very worried.

"Ya see, what happened was we were fightin', and he kinda made me really heavy when I was in mid-air, and I crash landed on my leg... Long story short, Tech said no activity for me until about da time you get back."

"Oh, Ace-"

"No freaking out!" he interrupted. "Seriously, I'm fine, we caught Massive in the end, and dat's dat. No more on da matter. So, what happened to you today?"

I sighed because of what he had just told me and because of what I was about to tell him; he over worried about others, and often under worried about himself. I fully intended to call Tech later to know exactly what condition he was in, even though he sounded just fine over the phone.

"Alright, now it's _your_ turn to promise _me_ not to freak out," I began, as hesitant as he was.

"Lex, what happened?"

"Well... Melvin decided to make an appearance to avenge his space ships that I blew up."

"He _WHAT_? Are you alright? Oh, man, I_ KNEW_ I never should have let you go over 'dere alone-"

"Ace, you're freaking out," I stated matter-of-factly. "I'm _fine_; I just have a little scratch on my arm. Sive showed up and helped me beat them off."

"Lexi, you shouldn't be over 'dere alone, maybe you should come back and we'll-"

"_No_, Ace," I interrupted sternly. "I'm not going anywhere unless some huge emergency comes up; I'll be fine here, and nothing you say will change my mind." I could be really stubborn when I wanted to be.

"...Fine," he surrendered, sounding sullen. "But I'm still uncomfortable with the thought of you bein' alone over 'dere."

"I'm not alone, remember? Sive's with me. Now, let's change the subject before one of us gives the other a heart attack."

"Alright, 'den. How about Sive? What's she like?"

"She's awesome. She's funny, nice, a really good fighter, has a few really good friends in the area, and has enough sarcasm to counter even Duck."

"Anyone who helps my goilfriend and can possibly keep Duck's ego on a leash is okay wit' me," Ace said. I giggled a little; I always found it really cute when he tried saying 'girlfriend,' but because of his accent, he always said 'goilfriend.' I could hear Duck shout something at him in the background, but I couldn't hear what he said. "So, she's got friends in 'de area? What are 'dey like?"

"They're nice, too, and apparently they're all part of a gang."

"Say what?" Ace somehow managed to sound confused, worried, interested and suspicious at the same time.

"They play street hockey a lot around here, and call the teams 'gangs'," I explained, much to his relief. "They offered to teach me how to play tomorrow, so I took them up on it. It could be fun!"

"You'll have ta' tell me how 'dat goes. Do ya have plans for what you're gonna do later in the week?"

"I'll think of something," I said slyly.

"Whatever you say." He paused for a moment; I could hear someone talking to him in the background. "Sorry, Lex, but Tech's gettin' mad at me; he says I gotta get some rest."

"Listen to Tech, Ace. He's just trying to help."

"I know, I know," he conceded. "Talk to ya later, Lex. Love ya."

"Love you too, Ace. Bye."

I sighed, hung up the phone and collapsed on the bed; it had been a rough day, and I was exausted. Even though it was only 7:30, I fell asleep in minutes.

**xoxoxoxox**

**Sive's POV****  
**  
"So, let me get this straight," Lexi said as I passed the ball to her. "Your electricity powers on their own aren't all that powerful, you can act as a small scale generator, and you can take power away from a source to power yourself up, while causing a citywide blackout in the process?"

"I could," I corrected, stopping the ball as Lexi passed it back to me. "But that would probably kill me. I can only handle so much electricity in my system at once. I could probably take out a building easily, but even a small city block would be really pushing it. If I take too much, I'll fry from the inside out."

"Well _that _wouldn't be very good at all. But I think I get how your powers work now," she said, taking a shot at the goal. She had been asking me questions about my powers while Rio, Leto, their guys and I were teaching her how to play street hockey, and she was a natural. "So, you can hold a phase for about 45 seconds, your electricity works fairly moderately on anything other than robots, and you're essentially a super battery and charging cord. Cool."

"Glad you think so. Got any other questions?"

"A few actually," she began. She was hesitant. "Well, would you share anything about your past?"

All of the guys either winced or shook their heads, and a collective "Oooh," was heard throughout the alley.

"Sive doesn't talk about her past," Rio shouted from the net; he was playing goalie. "We've all asked her, but she won't tell us anything."

_Not without good reason_, I thought, stealing the ball from Leto's team and passing it to one of Rio's guys. No one had to hear my sorry sob story. And besides, I loathed talking about it.

"Ok, then," Lexi said, obviously feeling awkward. "How about a last name?"

"I don't have one," I shouted over my shoulder, stealing the ball from the offense and passing it to Lexi, who then slapshot it into the goal.

"How do you _not_ have a last name?"

"Simple; I ignore it's existance."

"Hey, Leto, time's up!" the guy with the watch yelled. Leto asked us for a rematch for the game he lost when Dumb and Dumber showed up, and he had just lost 6-4.

"That wasn't exactly a fair match, Rio!" Leto yelled. "You have the advantage!"

"How so?" Rio questioned.

"You have the super powered anthros!"

"It was a strictly no-power game!" Rio yelled.

"How do we know they weren't secretly using their powers?" one of Leto's guys asked, eyeing us in mock suspicion.

"Well, considering how phasing and super hearing wouldn't help much in this situation, and none of you guys were turned into wall-art, I'd say we didn't do anything," I put in, sounding completely serious, even though both Lexi's brain blast, as she called it, and my electricity powers weren't strong enough to actually turn anyone into wall-art. This made everyone laugh, and ended the argument. Everyone went their separate ways after that, and Lexi and I started walking towards Maggie's café for lunch.

"So, what did your boyfriend say about our little fight with tutu-guy yesterday?" I asked. I could never remember that guy's name when I wanted to.

"His name's Melvin, and Ace wasn't happy. He said that I should go back to Acmetropolis."

"Are you?"

"Of course not!" she replied in a 'why-do-you-even-ask-these-things' tone. "There's no way I'm going yet; I just met you! And besides, it sounds like they're _almost_ getting along fine without me."

"Almost?"

"Yeah, well, they apparently got into a fight the other day, and Ace got hurt. He said he would be alright, but I called Tech, just to be sure. For once, Ace wasn't lying about the severity of his situation."

"Well, that's good," I said. "Hey, how many more days are you here for?"

"Including today? Four. Why? Do you want me out of your hair or something?" she asked playfully.

"Nah, nothing like that. Just wondering. Hey, what do you want to- WHOA!" I yelled, slipping out of my shoe for the 80th time that week. "Not again..."

"Uh, are those shoes a little big for you?"

"Yeah, kinda..." I replied, putting my shoe back on and continuing down the street. "But it's not like I can afford another pair."

Lexi abruptly stopped, and so did I. She looked me over as if she had never seen me before a few times before continuing walking, asking, "When's the last time you went shopping?"

"Uh, around here, 'shopping' isn't exactly a common vocabulary word."

"That settles it," she said, almost to herself. "Tomorrow, we're doing something that girls our age should get to do at least once a week."

"And that would be...?" I asked warily. I still barely knew her, and even though I pretty much trusted her, she could still make me nervous sometimes.

"Shopping!" she shouted, even though I was standing right next to her, obviously over excited.

"And I'm going to afford that _how_...?"

"I'd pay for you, of course." I was about to object, but she knew I would and continued before I could get a word in. "We get paid a lot for what we do, and I hardly ever have time to go shopping, so it all adds up. I have more in the bank than I know what to do with, and besides, I would _love_ to take you shopping! When's the last time you _were_ shopping, anyways?"

"I've never been," I said solemnly. "I've been on the streets since I was eight."

"Eight?" Lexi asked in disbelief. "How did you _survive _that? How long ago _was_ that?"

"Ten years next week. And I'm not really sure, I just did what I had to and here I am."

Lexi did some quick math in her head before continuing. "So you'll be 17 next week?"

"18. I turned nine after I was out here." I mentally facepalmed; I had just inadvertently told her something about my past. _Damn_.

"Cool. But, back to the shopping thing; _please_ say you'll come! And besides, you really need new clothes," she pointed out. She was right; my shoes were a few sizes too big, and about to fall apart, and my old, faded jeans and t-shirt were ripped up in places. She really wanted to go shopping, and was giving me the full pleading, puppy-dog eyes, almost whining tone.

"Alright," I conceded. She squealed as we walked into the café. "But there aren't any stores around here, though. We'd have to go into the main part of the city, and if I go there looking like I do, I'll be pegged as a Navy District resident before we even walked two feet, and they don't even allow anyone from over here into the stores for fear of being robbed."

She looked me over again for a moment. "We're probably the same size, aren't we?"

"Lexi, I-"

"Don't even try it, Sive," she interrupted. "No one changes my mind when I don't want it to be changed. Just ask anyone who knows me."

I just sighed and sat at the counter, wondering for the second time that week what I was getting myself into.

**A/N: Wow, through all my ranting, I didn't notice something important. **_**THIS IS MY 10**__**TH**__** CHAPTER! **_** Woo-hoo! *pulls strings on thousands of confetti cannons* *hits everyone in the room with silly string* Waffles make me hyper.**

…**Anyways, I hope to have my next chapter up soon, because like I said, it's REALLY important! But, some good news! *drumroll* Driver's Ed is over next week! Meaning I have more time to type! YAY! **

**And a slight question for my in-the-know readers: I keep on reading fanfics where the Loonatics can change back to their original colors, yet I don't remember seeing that in the original show. Can they actually do that, or is it a creation of the superfans? **

**R&R!**


	12. Ch 11 So Many Answers

**A/N: Guess who had a double snowday and spent all day working on this **_**extremely **_**long, **_**extremely**_** important chapter? XD I'm starting to like all of the snow, now… But with the sun out, it's blinding! Anyways, the first part is kinda fangirl-filler-stuff, but the second part is SO FREAKING IMPORTANT! …And then the third part just helps explain things that will happen later. But, this is getting really close to the end! Not that much farther to go now! (Probably… Like, 98.6% sure.) Anyways, my last Driver's Ed class is today, and that means WAY more typing time! YAY! Ok, enjoy your very important chapter!**

**Special thanks to Halloween Witch for answering my question!**

Ch 11 So Many Answers I Don't Know Where To Start…

**Sive's POV**

Lexi and I were just about to get off of the train at a stop in an area known as the Tourist District. It was riddled with attractions, stores, and one of the biggest shopping malls in the world. Lexi and I took the train because anyone who had been to the area before knew that trying to get anywhere by car was like waiting for snow in Brazil; it was an impossible law of nature. We did have to drive out of the Navy District to get to a train station, but that's as far as we went by car. We got off and started walking in the direction the mall was in.

"I'm glad you convinced me to wear a jacket; it's cold out here!" Lexi said, pulling her jacket closer around herself. She decided to wear something other than her uniform today; she had a light blue windbreaker with a pink shirt and white jeans on, and her fur had changed from pink to tan. She said mine could change, too, if I wasn't on-edge, but I couldn't remember a time when I was relaxed. I figured that I would never see my original white coloring again.

"I'm just glad you brought an extra," I replied, zipping up my borrowed jacket. I was still wearing my too-big shoes, but I borrowed a not so ripped up pair of light blue jeans, a lavender shirt, and a black jacket. She didn't bring anything that I would really wear, but I didn't say anything about it. The only real problem was we _weren't _the same size; she was one size down from me, so everything was slightly too small and a little uncomfortable, but I didn't say anything.

"Is it _normal_ for it to be this cold here in August?" Lexi asked over a huge gust of wind.

"Around here, it's always cold. Because there aren't any skyscrapers in this area, a wind trap is formed, and that makes the area a never-ending wind spiral. And before you ask, I hang out in TV stores a lot, so a lot of what I know comes from there."

"Got it."

After a brisk walk, we got to the mall, and Lexi started running the show. I just followed as she led me into store after store, trying many things on, and buying them. I was having a harder time finding stuff I liked; apparently I really wasn't into what was popular, which at the time was really bright colors. Eventually we found a store that had some darker stuff, and I chose a pair of black jeans, a crème shirt with a dark green rose sketch on the front, a dark blue jacket, and a pair of purple and black high top shoes. And the best part was, since stores finally found a way to sell stuff in a way that it was alright to wear what you bought right away, I was able to change out of Lexi's uncomfortable borrowed clothes and into the new ones immediately.

We stopped for lunch at the food court in the mall after I changed. While we ate, I started absentmindedly playing with the necklace I usually kept tucked under my shirt.

Lexi noticed it and asked, "What's that?"

"Huh? Oh, this?" I didn't even realize I was playing with it until then. "It's my mom's necklace. Well, it _was_ my mom's necklace..."

"Sive, are you okay?" Lexi asked, showing concern.

"Yeah, sorry, I'm just getting lost in the past."

"...So that's your mom's necklace?" Lexi asked after a moment of silence. "That's cool. See this ribbon I have in my hair? My mom gave it to me for good luck years ago. I used to wear it only for big occasions, but now I never take it off."

"Cool. My mom gave this to me... Well, actually, I don't know _why_ she gave it to me…" I stopped talking. I almost gave away something. _Again_. I was _really_ losing my edge that week.

"Can I see it?" I took off the necklace and let Lexi examine it. It looked like a typical locket type necklace, but I had tried many times to open it, and after the 4,000th try, I gave up. It looked like a book with an 'X' on the front, an intricate vine pattern around the X, and a clip on the side, which gave the impression that it opened. It was on a really long chain, and made entirely of silver.

"Is there something written on the back here?" Lexi asked, feeling the markings on the back with her finger.

"Oh, yeah, but you can only read it under a magnifying glass or something. Here, try this." I grabbed one of the water bottles on the table and held it over the back of the necklace. It magnified it enough to be able to read the inscription. In tiny, calligraphic print, it read:

To see a world in a grain of sand,

And a heaven in a wild flower,

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,

And eternity in an hour

William Blake, 1803

"That was her favorite poem. I used to know the whole thing by heart from hearing her say it, but now that's all I can remember."

"1803? Is that when this was written?" I nodded my head. "It's so old... Wow. The only old stuff my parents are interested in is a TV show that ran in the 1900's featuring my ancestor, Lola Bunny. I swear, if you give my dad the remote, it's either that or something about cars."

"Actually, I think I've seen that. Isn't that the cartoon where the characters essentially kill each other multiple times per episode?"

"Pretty much," Lexi said with a straight face. We started laughing two seconds later after thinking about that old show, though.

"What's your dad like?" Lexi asked through the laughter, which made me fall silent immediately. She just _had_ to ask about _him_, didn't she?

Lexi was surprised by my sudden silence. She looked worried; probably because of my expression. Rio told me that I always looked really depressed, angry and/or stoic after someone mentioned _him_, and based on Lexi's expression, I figured I looked depressed.

"Sive, are you alright?"

I really wanted to tell her, but I never, _ever_, told anyone about it. If I did, then I would have to tell them my entire back story. It was enough to cause another internal argument.

_You should tell her. It would be good to get it off your chest._

But you don't want anyone to know. You don't want to talk about it, either.

Why don't _you want anyone to know?_

Because it's not something other people need to know. It's not something anyone should _know, either._

But you trust her. You should tell her about it.

But can you trust her with this_?_

"...Alright, I'll tell you, just not here," I said after a moment.

Lexi smiled and asked, "Understandable, but where then? My hotel?"

"No, I have someplace in mind..."

**xoxoxoxox**

**Sive's POV**

A few hours later, after getting back to the Navy District and dropping off Lexi's stuff at her hotel, we arrived in front of the half-building I called home. I had only taken Rio there once, and that was it. I didn't take anyone over there because of Dumb and Dumber; they didn't know where to find me, and as far as I was concerned, they didn't need to.

I took Lexi up the back staircase, which was solid enough to use. I made a quick stop on the sixth floor to drop off my stuff, and we continued up to the roof. I sat down on the ledge, swung my feet around so they were dangling 80 feet over the ground, and looked up at the night sky. Lexi sat down next to me, but stayed a couple of feet away from the edge.

"My mom used to take me stargazing all the time when I was little. I know the names of lots of constellations." I got lost in thought for a moment, thinking about what could have been.

"Sive? What happened to you? What could be so bad, you don't tell anyone about it?" Lexi asked, looking worried again. She pulled me out of my thoughts, and I figured I had better warn her before starting.

"You realize that in order to tell you, I'm going to have to give you my whole back story, right? And it is _not _your average run-of-the-mill story; it will probably the sorriest, saddest thing you've ever heard."

"I'm all ears," Lexi responded. We both giggled a little at the pun.

"Well, all of this revolves around my parents. My mom was great. She was super nice to everyone, and she was pretty. Like, _super_ pretty. I remember she had cropped red hair, and orange fur which I didn't know was possible for a... Actually, she was only half coyote; she never told us what her other half was. Whatever it was, it was where I get my short muzzle from. And my eyes. People used to say I looked just like her, other than the fact that I have black hair, and I used to have all white fur. My dad, however... He and my mom were polar opposites. My brother looks almost exactly like him... Except his features are softer like my mom's, and he has her eyes and ears.

"Anyways, this story goes all the way back to when I was born. Mom was like all other moms; ecstatic and overjoyed with their new child. My dad felt... _Awkward_, I guess. He wasn't happy that I was a girl, but I was his kid, so he didn't know how to react. He also wasn't happy that I was very small for my age, which isn't the case now, but definitely was then."

"How do you know this?" Lexi asked, confused.

"My brother, Aaron, told me this when I got older. He apparently likes eavesdropping. Anyways, because of that, my dad was always really distant from me. He would do the usual father-son stuff with Aaron, and those two were really close, but he avoided me. I kinda latched onto Mom, and that's why I did all this stuff with her.

"When I was four, my grandfather on my dad's side died. He left my dad his company. Under Dad, it took off, and it's even bigger now than it was before. We got rich off of it, but it didn't really matter. Dad started getting even more distant, even to Aaron, and Mom was getting worried.

"Two years later, when I was six, Dad was abusive towards us. Thankfully, he was the workaholic type, and so was never around, but even so, Aaron, Mom and I cleared the area as fast as possible when he was around.

"One day, before I left for my first day of school, Mom came up to me and hugged me. It's not that she never hugged me or anything, but I got the feeling that she was nervous, or anxious maybe. Even though I was only six, I still remember it clearly...

_Begin Flashback_

_I was just about to leave the house with Aaron, so we wouldn't be late for the bus. It was my first day of Kindergarten, and I was in a purple polka dotted dress with matching Mary Janes. My hair was short and curly then._

Mom walked up to me, kneeled down, and wrapped me in a tight hug. She was nervous, I could feel it.

"Mommy, you're squishing me!" I choked out.

"Sorry, Baby," she said, releasing me. She noticed that she had screwed up my hair, so she took out my headband, smoothed out my hair, and put it back in. She was the only one who could get my hair to stay out of my eyes.

"Aaron, come here." She wrapped him in a huge hug, and kissed him on the head.

"Mom_!" Aaron said, thoroughly embarrassed, even though we were the only ones there._

"Aaron, you go ahead to the bus stop. Sive will meet you there in a minute."

"'Kay, Mom!" he yelled behind his shoulder, running to the door.

"Wait!" Mom yelled, making him stop short. He walked back over and stood in front of Mom.

"Promise me that you'll always take care of Sive?"

"Mom, I-"

"Aaron. Promise me you'll do it. Always_."_

"Alright, Mom." He was the typical bored-with-the-parents-and-their-ridiculous-requests kind of kid. He figured that she was just telling him this because it was my first day of school, and that's what I always thought, too.

"Good. I love you."

"Love you too, Mom," he yelled behind his shoulder, running out the door.

"Is something wrong, Mommy?" I asked. She had started crying, and I had never seen her cry before.

"No, everything's alright, Sive. I just wanted to give you something before you go." She wiped off her eyes, and took off her necklace. I had always loved that necklace. She would let me try it on for a while, but she never let me wear it for any length of time, and she never took it off. But that day, she tripled up the chain so it wouldn't be too big, put it around my neck, and tucked it under my dress.

"Your necklace?" I asked in excitement. I had always wanted to wear it, and because it was my first day of school, it made it even more special.

"Yes. You just need to promise me something. Now, listen closely: You need to keep that safe. You can't take it off, you can't show it to anyone, you can't tell anyone you have it. Got it?"

"I got it, Mommy. I promise."

"Good." She had started crying again. "Now, be good at school, and always remember: I love you, Baby."

"I love you, too, Mommy!" I replied, wrapping her in a hug.

"C'mon, Sive!" Aaron yelled from the bus stop. "I can't be late!"

"Is everyone that cranky when they turn eleven?" I asked my mom. She laughed.

"Quick kiss," she ordered. I gave her a kiss on the cheek, and ran out to the bus stop.

"What was that about?" Aaron asked as we got on the bus.

"She wanted to-" I stopped and remembered the promise I made. "Nothing."

The day went totally normally for a first day of Kindergarten; I started learning to read, write, and count, we played games, and I made a couple of friends. Close to the end of the day, during nap-time, I wasn't sleeping. I couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong, that something bad was happening, and it made me anxious to get home, to hear my mom say that everything was alright. She never would.

Aaron and I got home, and Aaron was about to knock on the door, when we noticed that it was already open. I didn't think anything of it, but Aaron seemed worried, and that made me worried.

"Mom?" Aaron yelled as we walked in. There was no answer. "Sive, stay here. I'm going to go look around."

He walked away, and I stayed put. I was starting to get bored, when I heard something right above me. It was someone walking around in the room above me, the library, and Aaron didn't go upstairs to look yet. I thought it was Mom, so I ran up the stairs and down the hall to the big double-doors that led to the library. I was never strong enough to open them myself, but they were cracked open when I got there. I used all of my strength, and pushed one door wide enough for me to squeeze through. What I saw inside would haunt me for forever.

There was blood everywhere; on the walls, the floor, the ceiling, everything. The once white walls were now stained red; we had to repaint them later. The books on the shelves were ruined, and had to be thrown away. The green armchairs looked black, and were ripped up in places. We had to pitch those, too. But I didn't notice any of that. I suppose I screamed, because Aaron came running, yelling for me. He froze when he saw what had traumatized me.

There, lying on the long table in the middle of the room, was Mom. She was unrecognizable, and we only knew it was her because she was wearing her favorite scarf that day. She had been beaten, and eventually stabbed multiple times in the chest. I lost consciousness after that.

_End Flashback__  
_  
"I had gone into shock, and I woke up a few hours later in the hospital. Aaron would have gone into shock, too, but he kept himself together to stay with me. The doctors said that he never left me." I sighed. This story was emotionally exhausting to tell, and I was getting tired. "The police ruled it as a suicide, can you believe that?"

"A suicide?" Lexi repeated in disbelief. "How could they ever have reached that conclusion?"

"My dad told them to. He has so much influence... He still does, actually. He can get away with anything. They tried to make Aaron and I believe that she killed herself, but we knew better: She had been tortured and killed. I just wish I knew why, but I suppose I never will. I know Dad was somehow involved, but I never figured anything out."

"What happened after that?" Lexi asked after a moment of silence.

"We lived with just Dad, and one of my mom's old friends, Naomi. We called her Aunt Nae. He was still almost never around, but at least he wasn't abusive to us anymore, so Naomi came over whenever he wasn't around and was kind of our stand-in Mom after that. She left as soon as Dad got back., though.

"After that, Dad started being… Manipulative. Well, even more so than before, anyways. He can get anyone to believe almost anything, or get them to do almost anything, he just has to use the right words. He began to teach Aaron how to manipulate people; he intended for him to take over for him when he eventually died. Aaron was good at it, too. He was such a smart kid; I can't believe he started doing Dad's bidding! Dad gave him a job in the company because he was so good with computers… Anyways, about two years later, Dad decided he had had enough of me, I guess. So, he kicked me out."

"He _what_? Isn't that _illegal_ to do to anyone under 18?" Lexi asked in disbelief.

"He had the police in his pocket, remember? He could get away with almost anything. Well, anything local, anyways. I have a feeling that if the feds heard about some of the stuff he was doing, he wouldn't be able to sweet-talk his way out of it. Not that anyone would be able to find proof…"

"So, you came here right away?" Lexi asked.

"An eight year old would never survive here. I started out by staying in the same town I used to live in, laying low to hide from my dad. Aaron was helping me as much as he could right under Dad's nose. He did things like sneaking me food and water, new clothes when I needed them, money, stuff like that."

"He's a really good brother," Lexi commented.

"Not exactly," I corrected. "This went on for a year and a half. We had been meeting each other in a park not too far from our house for all of this time. But then, one day, when Aaron was supposed to meet me at a certain time, he didn't show up. I waited for hours, and I was starting to get worried, when two guys in suits that I have so lovingly nicknamed 'Dumb and Dumber' showed up in his place. They knew who I was, and if that didn't scare me enough, they said they were there to take me back to my dad. They said that Aaron had been working with him all along, and I had played along perfectly. I was crushed. I couldn't believe that Aaron was working with him the entire time. He played me!"

"Oh, Sive, I'm so sorry," Lexi said sympathetically.

"Thanks. So, after that, I left that part of the country. It took a few months, but eventually I ended up here. I had been staying in different abandoned buildings, avoiding Dumb and Dumber who somehow managed to track me down. Then, I found this place after the meteor. I've been here ever since, but that's the reason why I don't trust anyone anymore."

"…But, since you're telling me this, you trust me, don't you?"

I looked over at Lexi and had to ponder my answer for a moment.

"…You know what? I think I do."

We gave each other a friendly hug. I was totally exhausted; it had been a long day, and even thinking about my past, much less talking about it, left me wanting to sleep.

_But, _I thought, _it feels good to finally let it all out._

**xoxoxoxox**

**Mastermind's POV**

At this point, I was wondering how I could use what I was seeing on my monitor to my advantage: Sive, the girl I was tracking, was apparently friends with Lexi, one of the Loonatics.

I had made several dozen small robots that I named 'Spy Flys.' They were tiny robots that looked just like flies from a distance, but had video cameras where their eyes were supposed to be. I had sent a package with a small hole in it containing a few of them to a random address in New Chicago so I could send them out to find this girl, and once I finally did find her, she was with one of the Loonatics.

I was outraged at first; I thought that I had been played by Marovic. But as time went on, I could tell that the girl wasn't actually a Loonatic, but had in fact just met them. I figured that since the girl had phasing powers that I had seen her use multiple times, she was the rumored seventh Loonatic that I heard about on the news. But, by the looks of it, she technically hadn't joined yet.

I was hoping to get something from the Loonatics to use against her, but I was having a bit of trouble getting my Spy Flys into their building; that dog knew how to make his security systems. I had even been convincing some of the villains they had had trouble with in the past, or, the ones not in jail, anyway, to come out of hiding. I told them to do it for revenge, but in reality, it was so they could distract them while I went around my daily business unnoticed. Unfortunately, Massive, who I had sent out the day before, had been a somewhat easy target for them, and even when they were down one member and he injured their leader. Electro J. Fudd, whom I had sent out today, also proved to be an easy job for them. He didn't even injure any of them, and he only had four of them to deal with!

Hopefully, tomorrow would go better; I had convinced Pinkster to come out of hiding, and I had come up with another possible way to get my Flys in their building, which would hopefully go better than the last attempt. I hated working with animals, but trying to get rid of them was no easy task, either.

**A/N: OH MY GOSH! I did it. I gave you Sive's past. XD What do you think? Tell me in a review! …Please?**


	13. Ch 12 Story Sharing

**A/N: Yeah, this is super short for me, but if I went any further into the plot, it would have been too long, so I opted for short. I probably won't get another one up for a week (school and all that…) BUT! I have good news: I finished Driver's Ed! Which means I have SO MUCH MORE TYPING TIME! (I'm really excited!) Sooo… Yeah. But, now I'm helping one of my friends write a story for this website (CrazieFrenchie, I'm looking at you!), so I'm going to be a little busy… **

**Anyways, I have news for this story! I'm about 97.6% (anyone notice I use strange numbers?) sure that there are 5 chapters or less left of this story! *GASP* I can't believe it's almost over. It went by so quickly… And, for those who had questions about how Aaron's story and Sive's stories match up, all will be explained in the next chapter! And… *DUN DUN DUUUUN* Within the next two chapters, something VERY BIG will happen! …But, until I have it up, you'll just have to wait and see what it is. Until then, on with the show!**

Ch 12 Story Sharing

**Lexi's POV**

I was sitting on the train, heading back to Acmetropolis, one day earlier than I should have been. I had gone back to my hotel late last night, after waiting around at Sive's place to make sure she was okay; she seemed a little shaken after telling me her story. I would have been, too.

When I did get back, I had a message on my phone from Ace. It was too late by then to call him back, no matter how much I wanted to. He told me that Fudd had come out of hiding earlier that day, but luckily Tech, Rev, Slam, and Duck were able to handle him without getting hurt. Having two super villains come out of hiding in two days had them worried, though, and it worried me, too.

When I got a call from him on my cell the next morning saying that Pinkster had come out of hiding, I decided to go home early. Having super villains come out of hiding in quick succession was never a good thing, and I wasn't going to leave the guys alone and make them deal with it by themselves.

I was coming home with good news, though, and I was going to make twenty bucks off of it. I made a bet with Duck before I left; if I got Sive to say yes to joining, then I get the twenty bucks. If not, Duck got the money. As I was saying goodbye to Sive, I asked her again about joining. I got excited whenever I thought of her answer.

"Well..." she began, "It's going to take a few days for me to wrap things up around here; people to see, stuff to do, stuff like that. But... Yeah, I think I will join."

_Just wait until the guys hear about this,_ I thought. I'd tell them about it after they heard about Sive's past; they'd definitely need to hear some good news after that.

I only had one regret from my trip to New Chicago; the one question Sive wouldn't answer. She told me about her powers, about herself, and about her past, but she never gave me her last name. I could only wonder what she meant when she said that she didn't have one...

**xoxoxoxox**

**Lexi's POV**  
  
My train reached the station on-time, and Ace was there to pick me up, despite Tech telling him not to because of his leg. He still had a slight limp, but he said that he would be going back into action the next day, anyways.

By the time we got back, the rest of the guys were back from dealing with Pinkster. He had gone down easy without Stoney and Bugsy with him, and none of the guys were hurt that time, either. Right as I walked in the door, Rev bombarded me with questions.

"Hey-you're-back-how-did-it-go-did-you-meet-Sive-stupid-question-of-course-you-did-you-wouldn't-have-been-gone-so-long-if-you-didn't-but-what-was-she-like-did-you-" Duck grabbed his beak that time.

"What I'm still curious about is her past," Tech commented. "Did she tell you anything?"

"Actually, yeah, she did," Lexi stated. "But I've got to warn you; it's not a happy story."

"We can take it," Ace said.

So, I started retelling Sive's story. At first, they all seemed interested and ready to hear a typical here's-what-happened-and-it's-a-little-sad story. They weren't expecting what I told them. By the time I was done, the room was filled with a shocked silence; even Rev didn't have anything to say.

"Well..." Tech began, breaking the silence. "Who exactly is her dad? I can only think of a handful of people with that kind of influence."

"I don't know; she never told me her last name," I admitted. "That was the only thing she didn't tell me."

"Probably because that would make it easier for Daddy-Dearest to track her down," Duck observed.

"That's exactly what I was thinking," I agreed. "That, or she just didn't want us to know who he is."

"Da habba du ga brother!" Slam grumbled.

"Slam's-right-I-can't-get-over-what-her-brother-did-either-I-mean-she-trusted-him-and-he-betrayed-her-how-could-he-do-that?"

"I can't get over any of it. How can so many bad things happen to one person? There should be some kinda' law against dat," Ace speculated.

"So, Lexi, I'm going to get right to the point here," Duck said, walking up to Lexi. He held out a hand. "I need those twenty bucks you owe me now. I saw something in a magazine earlier, and I'm fifteen dollars short."

"What makes you think I owe you anything?"

"Uhh, _hello_? The deal was that you come back with Sive, or I win!"

"The deal was that I get her to join, not necessarily come back with me! She said she needed to wrap some stuff up before she left."

"So, does dat mean...?" Ace began hopefully.

"Yup! Duck, you owe me twenty bucks," I informed him, holding out my hand. He grudgingly took out his wallet and gave me the money.

The rest of the guys were really excited; we were finally going to get another team member! Not that we all hated each other, but a change of pace would have been nice. I was really happy that I wouldn't be the only girl anymore.

The fact that I considered Sive to be one of my closest friends didn't hurt, either.

**A/N: Yeah, kinda filler-ish, but I wanted to include it, and I needed something to transition into what's coming up in the next installment. Sooo… This is what came out. Anyways, R&R!**


	14. Ch 13 Just Like Puzzle Pieces!

**A/N: This was **_**so long!**_** But, there are a lot of answers! The back stories finally match up! XD**

**And by the sounds of the reviews you all left, (thank you all so much for those, by the way! You have no idea how much I appreciate it!) everybody thinks that it's over… NOT QUITE! Still one major plot twist coming up in the next chapter! But, there's only going to be about three to four more chapters left. I'm going to stop talking now and let everyone read.**

Ch 13 Just Like Puzzle Pieces!

**Lexi's POV**

In honor of the great news I brought, and of the guys' easy victory over Pinkster, we ordered celebratory pizza. With Slam around, that meant 27 large pizzas, a 3 hour wait, and a $375 or more bill, not including tip, which was why pizza wasn't a regular dinner item around the tower. We also hated doing it because they usually only had one delivery guy, and 27 pizzas was a big load.

About three hours later, the elevator dinged, and in walked three stacks of pizzas.

"That'll be $385," said a voice from behind the tallest pizza stack. We recognized it as the regular pizza guy, Stan.

"Here, let me help you with those," Tech offered, taking the top few pizzas off of the stack and revealing Stan's red baseball cap and his shaggy brown hair.

"I'll take a few of those!" Rev yelled from across the room, running over to Stan and taking the next few on the stack, revealing Stan's face.

"I'll take a few of dese off a ya," Ace said, walking over to the smallest stack and taking a few off of the top, revealing the top of the head of someone with brown hair.

"I'll get some, too," I said, taking a few more from the brown-haired person. Now we could see her face; a young woman, older than the rest of us, with long, straight hair, flushed cheeks, and glasses. I took my boxes to the kitchen and waited to see who would catch on first; Slam, or Duck. Whenever we ordered pizza, we sometimes played a little game; last person to help had to pay.

Slam realized what was going on, ran over, and grabbed the rest of the woman's pile, the rest of Stan's, and grumbled something to the third pile in which the words "Follow me," were understandable. The pizza tower obeyed and followed him to the kitchen, where all of the other pizzas were being stacked on top of the counter.

"Yo, Duck!" Ace yelled, getting the mallard's attention.

"Wha- Oh, not _again_!" Duck yelled in annoyance; he had paid the last three times. "Alright, $385? Hey, Tech, how much would tip be?"

"$38.50 per person. All together, that's $115.50 for the tip, $500.50 total," Tech replied without missing a beat.

"Oh, we don't need a tip," the woman reassured, gesturing towards the other pizza box pile; Slam was making room on the counter for the rest of the boxes. "We don't even work for the pizza place; we were heading up here anyway, and saw him trying to get 40,000 pizzas through the doorway, so we decided to help."

"There are 27 pizzas here Naomi," corrected a male voice behind the remaining boxes. The name rang a bell, but I couldn't place it. I knew that Sive mentioned it to me, but only in passing, and I couldn't remember what she had said.

"See you guys next time," Stan said, walking out with a large wad of bills.

"Yeah, see ya, Stan," Duck mumbled, upset over his now empty wallet.

"So, you two were coming here, anyway? Mind if I ask why?" Tech asked, walking back from the kitchen. Slam was still trying to clear enough space on the counter for the other guy, who we still hadn't seen yet, to put the pizzas down.

"Well... We need your help with something. Something _really_ important," Naomi informed, looking over to the other guy for support. Slam had finally cleared enough of the counter to take the pizzas from him, and Tech and I were shocked when we saw his face.

There was only one thing I noticed at first; his eyes. They were exactly the same as Sive's. The fact that he was a pinkish-brown coyote anthro, though obviously not 100% (his ears were too short,) only made the fact clearer in my mind: this guy was Aaron, Sive's brother. And, due to the fact that he was wearing an outfit consisting of a pink collared shirt, grey slacks and a black sports jacket that probably costed more than my entire wardrobe, he was obviously still working for her dad.

Realizing that also jogged my memory as to who Naomi was; the woman who raised Aaron and Sive after her mom died. If she was with Aaron, then that probably meant that she was working for her dad, too.

_Well, this can't be good…_

The other guys were mildly surprised that the other guy was an anthro, but other than that they seemed totally indifferent. I was confused as to why Tech looked shocked, though.

"I know you!" He said after a moment. "You're Aaron Marovic, second-in-command of MCI Incorporated!"

"Silly you, hoping no one would know who you are," Naomi remarked sarcastically to Aaron.

"What's CSI?" Duck asked from the kitchen, grabbing a slice of pizza.

"It's MCI, Duck, and for your information, MCI is a _huge _manufacturing company that makes everything from missiles to toasters. Actually, we have an MCI coffee maker. I also use a lot of their stuff for many of my inventions. Aaron here is, like I said, second-in-command, and invented about half of their super high-tech computer gear himself."

"Well, I made a _few_ things, but not _that_ much," Aaron corrected, attempting to be modest.

They started a conversation about the company, and it inadvertently caused the perfect distraction. Ace had seen my reaction to when I saw Aaron, and he discreetly made his way to the back of the room. I did the same, and we talked quietly.

"What's up, Lex?"

"Don't tell me you haven't made the connection! That's Sive's brother!"

"I guessed, but I couldn't be sure. Are you, though? We can't throw accusations around like snowballs here, Lex."

"I'm sure, Ace; they have the same eyes."

He thought about it for a moment before responding. "...You would know. What course of action should we take here, though? We can't trust da guy; he's workin' for her dad!"

"I'm not sure... I say we hear what he has to say, and go on from there."

"Good idea."

We walked back over to the rest of the group and Ace cut into the middle of their conversation. "Excuse me, doc, but why exactly did ya come all da way over here ta find us?"

"Oh, jeez, where to start..." Aaron mumbled to himself. I went around sharing Ace's and my suspicions with the rest of the guys, and they all looked as if they were mentally slapping themselves for not making the connection, especially Tech. "Well, you see, I have a little sister, and I think she's in some serious trouble. Let me rephrase that: I _know_ she's in serious trouble; trouble that would involve needing your help."

"This little sister of yours wouldn't happen to be Sive, would it?" Duck asked accusingly.

"Wha- How do you-? Wait a minute, that news story we saw coming over here..." Naomi gasped, realizing how Duck knew Sive. She was probably talking about the story Duck had leaked to the press of the new Loonatic.

"So, wait, if you guys... Then that means... But then you'd..." Aaron started, making the rest of us think he was totally nuts. Naomi just looked annoyed, which made me think this was a common occurrence with him. "Uhh, wait! Before you guys rip me to pieces, just wait until you hear the whole story!" He looked as if we were about to attack him; Naomi covered her face with her hands.

"Now-why-would-we-rip-you-to-pieces-that's-an-odd-thing-to-say."

"Wait... Did Sive tell you about what happened all those years ago, or do I just look crazy?"

"Both. And I gotta admit; after hearin' what you did ta Sive, you aren't exactly our favorite person right now. But what do ya mean by the 'whole story?'" Ace inquired.

"Because Dad-! He-! Just-! _Why_ can't I form complete sentences today?" Aaron yelled, annoyed at himself.

"Aaron, there's a lot of days when you can't form complete sentences," Naomi stated matter-of-factly, earning herself a glare from Aaron. "And besides; it's not the easiest story to tell."

"Yeah... In order to tell you what I'm talking about, this involves going a ways back into my past," Aaron explained.

"Let's all take a seat," Ace suggested, heading for the living room. We followed, and Aaron started talking right away.

"So, when I was 12, my dad started teaching me everything he knew, as if he was trying to turn me into a clone or something. I played along with it, and unfortunately had to use some of what he taught me to convince him that I was on his side. I didn't like it, but I did what I had to; if I didn't, who knows what he would've done to me or Sive?

"Then, the next year, he did the unthinkable; he kicked Sive out, and she was only _eight_! He tried convincing me that she had ran away, and that was what he told the police, but I was _way_ smarter than he gave me credit for. I knew I had to help her somehow, and the only thing I could think of doing was meeting her in secret and giving her stuff she would need. So, I managed to find her two days after she was kicked out, and I told her to stay in the area, but not too close to the house, so Dad wouldn't catch on. I told her to meet me in the park that we used to go to with Mom, near a certain monument that she had liked, at a certain time. I brought her enough food to last her the week, a water bottle that she could refill at a fountain, and some money. We met almost every week like that, and Naomi here went when I couldn't.

"It went on fine for a year and a half, and Dad never caught on. But then, he started noticing stuff going missing, and started to investigate. He suspected the people that worked at the house at first, but one of them told him that I was sneaking out once a week. I swear, if I _ever_ find out who told him, I'll-"

"Aaron, now is _not_ the time to start following another train of thought," Naomi advised.

"Oh, yeah, sorry. Anyways, one night, when I went out to meet Sive, he sent out someone to follow me. I never saw him, and learned that he was there a week later, but he saw me and Sive. He reported everything back to my dad, including our next meeting date. So, he made a plan to stop me from helping Sive. That was _not_ one of my finest moments..."

_Begin Flashback___

"Aaron, may I see you for a moment?" Dad asked, motioning for me to follow him into his office. He was the workaholic type who had a full in-home office, but he never allowed me into it. I had never wanted to see it, but I followed him in anyways. The doors closed ominously behind me, and I was scared out of my wits.

_"Aaron, I know where you've been sneaking of to every week," he informed me, standing behind his desk. I felt my heart skip a beat, and my only thought was, _I'm too young to die! I'm only 13!

_I did the only thing I could think of; play dumb. "Uhh, I don't know what you're talking about Dad. Can I go now; I promised my friends I'd meet them at the park."_

"Aaron, Aaron, Aaron... What did I teach you about playing dumb?"

"...That it never works."

"Exactly. Now, I know you've been helping Sive all this time right under my nose." I tensed myself for what was coming next. "Relax. I won't be mad if you do one little thing for me."

That made me even more nervous; whenever Dad wanted something, it either meant bad news for someone else, or bad news for whoever didn't do what he wanted, and I had a bad feeling that it was going to be either me or Sive. "Uhh, what do you need?"

"It's simple, really; an easy job for you. I just need you to bring Sive to me."

That set off every alarm hypothetically on my person. This was one of those times that I remembered my promise to Mom, the one she made me make the last time I saw her...

"...Why?" I figured I may as well get some answers before refusing.

_"She has something I want, and _no_, I will _not_ tell you what it is."_

"...No, I won't do it!" I yelled, running for the door. I had made it halfway across the room before being grabbed from behind by two people, which was really unnecessary; I had the build of a swimmer, so one guy would have been able to do the job.

_The two that grabbed me turned me around so I was facing the desk again, and I saw two other men in gray suits were standing in front of Dad's desk. I didn't know where all those people came from, and I didn't care; I just wanted to get away from them._

"You two know what to do," Dad said to the men in suits. They left the office, and it was just me, Dad, and the two guys that grabbed me. "Aaron, I can't have you fraternizing with your sister; she's too much like her mother, and that could ruin everything. The two I just sent out will handle the, ah... Problem, let's call it."  
_  
"What are they going to do?" I yelled, even though he was right in front of me; I was scared, upset, and more than a little angry._

"They're going to meet Sive in your place, and tell her the whole story. Tragic, really, what will happen... They will tell her that you were working for me all along, and everything you did was under my orders. She'll think you betrayed her. Then, those two will bring her back here, willing or not. This is why I tell you to never get attached to anyone; if they get hurt, so do you, and this is how I'm going to show you that. I'll let you see your sister one more time when she's back here, but after that, you'll never be hearing from her again."

He walked out the door and gave a signal to the two men holding me. The threw me across the office, quickly stepped out, and closed the door. I could hear the lock click into place, and the windows were barred, leaving me no way out; I was trapped. The only things running through my mind were that I had broken my promise to Mom, and that I was about to lose the only real family I had left.

_End Flashback_

"He kept me locked in there until dawn. When he let me out, he didn't look happy; I found out later that Sive had gotten away from those guys he sent after her, and left the area. I knew I may never see her again, but it was definitely better than Dad's version of 'never see her again.' Besides, as far as she knew, I had betrayed her, so there was absolutely no reason for her to stay."

"Well-that-explains-that-but-why-are-you-here-now?" Rev asked.

"Well, Dad kept me on a short leash for years afterwards. It was only about four years ago that I finally convinced him that I was over it and on his side. Naomi here had been eavesdropping on him for me so I could keep tabs on his progress in capturing Sive, and has been for about... Six years now?" Naomi nodded her head. "Why he wants whatever she has so badly is beyond me, and we're not totally sure what he's after. He keeps on referring to some kind of key, but neither of us has any idea of what he's talking about."

"Wait, how were you able to eavesdrop on him? Solomon Marovic is one of the most secretive people on the planet," Tech queried. "He's never even let the press take a picture of him."

"Who?" I asked, unfamiliar with the name.

"Solomon is my dad," Aaron explained.

"And I'm his personal secretary," Naomi stated. "He never remembered that I was Tempie's best friend, no matter how many times anyone told him. He never suspected me, so eavesdropping on him was easy."

"Wait, now I'm confused... Who's Tempie?" Ace asked, looking befuddled. We all looked at Tech, but he just shrugged his shoulders.

"Temperance Thurne: My mother..." Aaron began, then trailed off, lost in thought. "...Anyways, Naomi reported back to me everything she heard that was important, and we continued on like that until we heard something we could use. In this case; a conversation that led us to you.

"Dad contacted someone, and together, they came up with a plan that could actually work; a first for Dad when it came to trying to catch Sive. The person that he contacted was named Mastermind, and that led us to you."

It became so quiet in that room, a pin could've dropped, and I wouldn't have been the only one to hear it. When Mastermind was involved, we always had to be one step ahead, or we would be in serious trouble. This time, we were at least three steps behind.

"...Well, that was a nice story, but until you show us some actual proof, I don't think we can help you with anything," Duck informed, acting haughty as ever.

There was about to be a big argument, until I cut in, saying, "Guys, I never thought I would say this, but I think Duck's right."

"Of course I am! ...Wait, I _am_?"

"Well, yeah. You said it yourself, Aaron: Solomon taught you how to manipulate people. How do we know you haven't been playing us this whole time?"

The others calmed down, Naomi looked worried, but Aaron seemed totally indifferent.

"I thought you might say that," he began, pulling a small case from his pocket. He typed in a code, and a hidden compartment opened on the side of the case. He dumped the contents on the table; a small CD, a flash drive, a bracelet too small to fit anyone over the age of 10, and a photograph. I looked closer at it and recognized Aaron, who had tan fur in the picture, and Sive, who had pure white fur, with a woman I didn't know. All their eyes matched, and I guessed it was their mother.

_She was so beautiful..._ I thought. _Just like Sive said._

"What's all this?" Tech asked, examining the flash drive.

"This is all stuff I had to keep hidden from Dad, hence the secret compartment. The photo is the last one I have of all three of us, and the bracelet is something that Sive made for me when she was in first grade. But, you'll be more interested in the drive and the disk.

"You see, when the meteor hit, I became a technopath. Not like Mastermind, but still a technopath. I can figure out how to build some things and know how others work by looking at them, but it doesn't always work. But, these two items are here thanks to those powers. The flash drive is the only completely undetectable hacking device in existence; just plug it in, give it about 20 seconds, and every locked file on the computer is now open. Works on anything, but it is one of a kind, so _please_ be careful with it." Tech gingerly put it back on the table. Aaron grabbed everything except the disk and put it back into the compartment.

"What I want to show you is on the disk. If you put it in the computer, it will automatically upload everything on it, so long as it's not encrypted, password protected, etcetera. I used these on Dad's computer before we left, and everything that _was_ on his computer is now on here."

He pulled a laptop out of a laptop case Naomi had around her shoulder and turned it on. He was about to put the disk in, when Tech grabbed his wrist and almost yelled, "_Wait_! If you access his files, and he's on his computer right now, he'll know!"

"Yeah, I thought of that. But, if his computer technically doesn't exist anymore, then we don't have a problem."

"Aaron? What did you do?" Naomi asked, looking worried.

"Remember that computer virus I was working on? Well, before we left, I released it into my work computer. When Dad hacks into it, which he most likely already did, it will involve using at least three other computers that are hooked up to one network or another. The virus is designed to infect all computers hooked into said network, regardless of whether they're accessing the host computer or not. Odds are, it would be the company's network," Aaron explained smugly, obviously proud of his work.

"That would explain the news stories..." Tech mumbled to himself, releasing Aaron's wrist. "MCI employees reported all of their computers being attacked by something that wiped all of their hard drives, along with strange effects on the screensavers. That would _definitely_ make it seem as if a computer didn't exist anymore. I hear they won't be back online until tomorrow."

"Then that means that it worked." Aaron put the disk into the computer. It went blank, then flashed to life again showing a different screensaver. "Now, just bear with me for a moment; I need to find it, first."

He clicked around for a few minutes, opening files, scanning them quickly, and closing them immediately. The rest of us wondered what he was searching for, when it finally seemed as if he found it. In a file well hidden on the computer, there were a series of saved videos. He scrolled down to one that read 'MM181774' which made no sense to us, but seemed to make at least some to him.

"Dad records almost all of his conversations, and I knew he'd keep this one; this is the conversation with Mastermind that Naomi overheard."

That piqued our interest, so we all crowded around the screen. It took a moment to load, but then the screen showed Mastermind, and the video played.

It was all introductions and formalities at first, and Solomon even said the full story of their pasts. He got to the point quickly, so we didn't have to wait long to hear what Aaron was talking about.

"It should be an easy job, should you accept it, for someone of your intellect," Solomon said, his voice sounding smooth and even. "All you need to do is find Sive, gain her trust, get her to come with you to Acmetropolis, and then I'll send my men to pick her up. I'm sure you'll be able to find something against her that will help you gain her trust, which will be the only hard part. I'll send you the rest of the information regarding her location and such later."

"All I have to do is flush out this girl for you, and you'd give me supplies for life, along with whatever it takes to get rid of the Loonatics?" Mastermind asked in disbelief.

"Exactly."

"Well, then, how can I say no?"

Aaron paused the video. "That's all that's really important, but you get the idea. This disk is probably full of proof of a crapload of other illegal activities, I just need to go through it all. Once I do, this disk is going to the feds... And then me into hiding in the South Pacific for a few years until Dad's gone, but you get where I'm going with this; with your help or not, I fully intend to bring Dad down."

"And you can expect me to be there, too," Naomi cut in.

"All I need to know is if you all are in or not. If not, then we're leaving." I could tell by the look on his face that he meant every word.

We were all silent, still taking in what we just saw and heard. We weren't sure if we trusted him yet, but the evidence spoke for itself.

"...Well, there's no turnin' back now. What do you guys say?" Ace asked the rest of us. There was silence.

"Well-he-does-have-a-lot-of-proof-saying-he's-on-our-side-and-he-does-seem-to-be-telling-the-truth-so-I-don't-see-why-we-can't-trust-him-and- I-don't-know-about-the-rest-of-you-but-I'm-in," Rev said, breaking the silence.

"Uhh, what did he just say?" Naomi asked.

"He said that he's in, and so am I," Tech put in.

"Yah!" Slam yelled, getting excited.

"I'm in, too," I said, also getting excited.

"Ya can count me in," Ace stated. We all looked at Duck.

"_What_?" he asked in mock innocence. "...Alright, fine, I'm in, too."

"We can't thank you enough for this," Aaron informed, looking ecstatic.

"Don't thank us yet, doc. We still need ta figure out how we can get da message across ta Sive; she seems ta know enough ta run if she hears about her dad, and she still thinks you're workin' for him. We also need to figure out how ta get the message across without her not trustin' _us_ anymore, and since we're talkin' ta you, we're goin' ta need ta be careful what we do with dat. But doin' any of this is gonna have ta wait until after we sort out this problem with our regular bad guys poppin' up for no apparent reason. We should be able ta come up with a plan within a couple of days, and by that time, we'll hopefully be through with our current problem," Ace explained.

"So long as we beat Mastermind to Sive," Aaron said. After all that excitement, there was an awkward silence.

"...You know, most of us still haven't had any of the pizza yet, and I'm starving!" I said, walking towards the kitchen. I heard the rest of the guys agree and start following me.

_Boy, has this been one heck of a week,_ I thought, grabbing a box of pizza and taking a slice.

**xoxoxoxox**

**Mastermind's POV**  
  
I had finally managed to get a Spy Fly into the Loonatic's HQ, and the first thing I noticed was that the pink bunny had come back early. That meant that it was finally safe for me to go into New Chicago without being detected, and I was sick of waiting around in present day Indiana, so I hopped into the cargo car of the first train I could and it was a quick twenty minutes before I reached my destination. It wasn't my favorite way to travel, but I didn't exactly blend into the crowd, and I had to travel around somehow.

Thankfully, in the Navy District, so long as I had money, I could stay in practically any hotel I wanted, no matter how much I stuck out. I got a cheap room, and decided to wait until I had something that I could use before I went looking for Sive. I took out one of the laptops I brought with me, hooked into the Spy Fly system, and watched the Loonatics, hoping to see something I could use.

Then, hours of waiting and watching later, I saw something that ended my worries. Aaron Marovic walked into the building, and began telling a whole story of how he really was on their side, and how he just wanted to help his little sister. As soon as I saw him, I recorded the video; Solomon would probably want to see it, and I had a feeling I would need it later.

I sent a video call to Solomon, which was re-routed and sent to another name on another network.

_That's odd… I wonder what happened to his computer?_

He answered almost right away. "Do you have her already? That was fast."

"Not quite yet, Solomon," I corrected, making him look angry. I wasn't easily intimidated, but this guy put me on edge. "I do have something you would like to see, though." I played the recording for him, and he looked stoic throughout the video.

"So that's where he went," he mumbled after the video was over. "Well, I think you finally have what you need to use against Sive."

"I was thinking the same thing. I just thought you should see that so you knew what was going on. But, now that that's done, if you'll excuse me; I have a teenager to catch."

"One other thing," he said quickly, making me pause from clicking the 'End Call' button. "I don't care so much about my secretary, but I'll throw in a bonus for you if you catch Aaron. The designs for an experimental power cell, perhaps?"

_That_ caught my attention; I had heard rumors of a super power cell in the developmental stage at MCI, and I needed one for a robot design I had in mind.

"Deal. You'll have your two dogs gift wrapped in under a week."

"Good. Contact me the second you have them both, just make sure they don't meet each other beforehand." And with that, he hung up.

I got to work, a plan already formed in my mind. I replayed the recording, and took out bits and pieces of sound from the times that everyone was talking. I sorted them into different groups, one for each person, and began rearranging them and re-tuning them so they sounded natural.

_This is going to be too easy,_ I thought, packing up the laptop and exiting the hotel. It was time to pay Sive a visit.

**A/N: Wow, I did it again! CLIFFHANGER! Well, this has been my longest chapter to date, but also the second most important, second only to the chapter about Sive's past.**

**Anyways… What is Mastermind up to? You'll have to find out in the next chapter! R&R!**


	15. Ch 14 Evil Schemes

**A/N: Wow, I was on a **_**roll**_** today and yesterday! I got a whole chapter done! YAY! …And I realized that I never said when I would get my next chapter up in my last chapter, so, in order to prevent confusion: HERE IT IS! XD**

**Anyways, my next chapter will be up either later this week or this weekend.**

**And one last thing: WERE IN THE LAST FOUR CHAPTERS HERE PEOPLE! Yes, it's almost over! I can't believe it, either. How long has it been since I started? Like, two months or something? WHERE DOES ALL THE TIME GO? (This is why I shouldn't be allowed near a computer after 9:00.) Well, anyways, read on!**

Ch 14 Evil Schemes

**Sive's POV**

I was wandering around the streets of New Chicago, doing absolutely nothing, when I heard something weird in an alley. I was curious by nature, so I turned and started walking cautiously towards the noise; it was dark between the buildings, so I wouldn't be able to see what it was until I was close to it.

I was able to make out a figure getting up off the ground, and an upturned trash can; the person had probably tripped, knocking over the trash can and creating the noise. I relaxed and figured that I may as well help them.

"Hey, you alright?" I asked, approaching the person. It was too dark to see who it was, but I could make out that it was a woman, and it looked like she was wearing a really big hat.

She was surprised by my sudden appearance, and acted cautious.

"Are you one of the local pickpockets? Because if you are, then I have to warn you; I will fight you off if you make me," she cautioned.

"When you're in a dark alley of this part of town, it's the muggers you have to watch out for. The pickpockets are in crowded areas, but I'm not either of those," I explained, partially lying. I was in fact a very skilled pickpocket, but I almost never did it, and when I did, it was usually just to annoy Rio and Leto. You picked up a lot of stuff when you lived in an area like the Navy District.

"I'll keep that in mind," she replied, relaxing a little. She took a step forward where a little light was shining, and I was able to see her clearly. She looked like a normal woman from the neck down, but it looked as if someone had blown up a beach ball inside of her skull. It was more than enough to put me on-edge, and I took a step back. That put me in a spot of light, and when she saw me, she was surprised at first, but then looked pleased with herself, which made me even more nervous.

"You wouldn't happen to be Sive Marovic, would you?" she asked in a sickly-sweet voice, taking a step forward.

If I was on-edge before, then that threw me over the metaphorical cliff. "That's _not _my name anymore," I replied in an I-mean-business tone.

"My apologies," she said, getting the message and backing off a little. "If that's not your name, though, then what is?"

"Sive. _Just_ Sive. And you would be...?"

"My name is Mallory. I've been looking for you for a while now."

"Why...?"

"To warn you," she stated matter-of-factly. "You're friends with one of the Loonatics, am I right?"

"I'm not sure if I should be telling you that..."

"It was a rhetorical question; I already know. But, I'm here to warn you about them. Sive, I know more about you than you think, and I know that the Loonatics are working with your father."

"Wha-! How do you-? What are you _on_, lady?"

"I know it's a bit hard to believe," she began, trying to keep her temper in-check. "With the Loonatics being superheroes, and thereby good guys by reputation, I found it very hard to believe myself at first, but then I saw the proof, and knew I had to warn you."

A little voice in the back of my head was telling me to run away and forget I ever saw her, but if Lexi and the others were really working for my dad, I needed to know. If they were, and I didn't know it, then I probably wouldn't live to see the end of the week.

"...What proof?" I asked, ignoring the little voice in the back of my head.

She took a laptop out of a case she had with her, opened it up, and began playing a video. It showed a bird's eye view of an entryway and a living room, and there were an assortment of people inside. Mastermind fast forwarded through the first part, which showed large amounts of pizza being moved around, one person leaving, and when the remaining people sat down, she played it at normal speed. I was able to see who was there now; all six of the Loonatics, and Aaron was there, too, which made me glare at the screen. I was never happy to see him, and I usually left the area whenever I was near a TV and an MCI commercial came on; Dad used him as the company cover-boy. I was only mildly surprised to see Naomi; I figured that she had either joined up with Dad and Aaron, or just left and forgot that I existed. Either way, it was no big shock to see her there.

"So what you're sayin' is that you want us ta help you catch your little sister? Why?" asked a yellow bunny. I figured that he was Ace.

"Pretty much," Aaron responded. I could barely recognize him; his fur was a different color, and he was a lot bigger than he was when he was 13. I only recognized him from his ears; he was always made fun of for how short they were. "You see, she has something that my Dad wants, and she's not an easy person to get a hold of. So, we figured that if anyone could help us catch her, it would be you."

"Why would we help you with dis, though? It sounds kinda... Criminal," Ace asked.

"It is a good ways out of the 'legal' spectrum of the law, but completely necessary. If you don't take my word for it when I say that what she has is important enough to do this, then we could make it worth your while. We could go the old-fashioned route and give you a large amount of cash, plans for new weapons, the key to the city... With us in your corner, you want it, you got it."

"What do the rest of you say?" Ace asked the rest of them after thinking it over himself a bit first.

"I-don't-know-about-the-rest-of-you-but-I'm-in," a roadrunner said, who I guessed was Rev.

"Uhh, what did he just say?" Naomi asked.

"He said that he's in, and so am I," a coyote who had to be Tech replied.

"Yah!" a big purple guy yelled, who I figured was Slam.

"I'm in, too," Lexi replied. My heart sank.

"Ya can count me in," Ace stated.

"I'm in, too," a duck, who was probably Duck, replied.

"What do we have ta do?" Ace asked Aaron.

"Simple: You've been looking for new members anyways, right? Just bring Sive back to Acmetropolis saying that she's the new member, but don't tell anyone about it. We'll handle it from there," Aaron explained.

Mallory paused the video, closed the laptop, and put it away. "That was taken a few weeks ago. Ever since I saw it, I've been trying to find you and warn you about them."

I was silent, letting what I just saw sink in.

_I trusted them..._ I thought. _And they betrayed me. I knew I shouldn't have trusted Zadavia, or Lexi, or any of them! When you trust people, you get hurt. Now, you let what happened ten years ago happen again. _

_Congratulations, Sive: You're a moron. _

"...Well, thanks for telling me about this, but... _Why_?" I asked sullenly.

"I know what your father is like. I'm an old friend of his, and I knew him before he got the company; before he started getting really distant. I met you when you were a baby, but you wouldn't remember it. I've been looking for you ever since I heard that he kicked you out, but I only recently heard a tip that led me here."

"Why were you looking for me for that long?"

"Because I figured that someone had to help you. Your dad doesn't even remember that I exist; I figured that I could give you a safe place to stay while you figured out what to do next."

I weighed my options. If I stayed in New Chicago, then Lexi would know exactly where to find me. I could always leave for another city, but starting over was so difficult, and I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to do it again without going mental. But if I went with Mallory, then I may not have to completely start over...

"...Where would that be?" I asked after a moment.

"In Acmetropolis. It would involve being close to the Loonatics, but odds are, you wouldn't see them, and with your phasing powers; yes, I saw you using them earlier, you could get away before they saw you easily. They would never even know you're there, anyways."

I didn't completely trust her, but I didn't not trust her, either. It could be considered that she saved my life in the long-run, so it wouldn't feel right if I didn't trust her at all, but I didn't like her that much; not knowing for sure how she knew so much made me nervous, so I couldn't completely trust her.

"...All right. When do we leave?" I asked.

"Right away; who knows when the Loonatics will show up? We can't risk staying. Are you ready to leave right now? Do you have all of your belongings with you?" I held up my messenger bag. "Excellent. If you'll just follow me..."

She started walking in the opposite direction, and I was about to follow, when I thought of something that I should probably do. I reached for my left wrist, took off the watch that Zadavia gave me, and let it fall to the ground. The face cracked on impact, and I didn't look back as I followed Mastermind out of the alley.

"So, is there a catch to this?" I asked as I caught up to her. She thought for a moment before replying.

"Not a catch per say, but if you're willing to help me with something, I would really appreciate it."

There_ it is,_ I thought sarcastically.

"Help with what?"

"Well, long story short, an old family heirloom was stolen from me, and I recently found it. I would love to get it back, but the people who took it refuse to give it up. In order to get it back, it may involve some... Drastic measures. Your phasing powers would help a lot."

I noticed how she only mentioned my phasing abilities when she was talking about my powers; nothing about my electricity powers. I still didn't trust her yet, so I wasn't going to say anything in case she didn't know about them.

"Why do you want it back so badly?"

"It can be used to create a super power cell that could potentially power half a city. That's what I would like to use it for, but I'm worried that the people who took it want to use it for a weapon."

I wasn't sure what to believe at that point; as far as I knew, a good portion of my world had been flipped upside down. I was lost trying to make out a clear thought in my head; all I thought I knew was that Mallory wanted to help me. So I figured; why not help her?

"Yeah, I'll help you. Just tell me what to do."

**xoxoxoxox**

**Aaron's POV**

Tech had called everyone, in the middle of the night, to the control room, and Naomi, Lexi and I were standing there in our pajamas, waiting for Slam, Rev, Tech and Ace to come back with Duck. He was apparently really hard to wake up.

About fifteen minutes later, they walked in, and Duck didn't seem happy at all.

"What's so important that you had to wake me up in the middle of the night?" he whined.

"A break in at AcmeTech, reported twenty minutes ago," Tech replied.

"And this is so important because...?" Duck continued.

"Mastermind is involved," Tech responded grimly. "There are a number of robots involved, and they're some of her signature designs."

"That's why we're here, isn't it?" I asked.

"Exactly. We're not sure if this incident involves Sive, but in case it does, we want you with us," Tech explained.

"What's she after?" Lexi asked.

"Probably a large gemstone that they recently shipped in from a mining operation in the Philippines." Tech pulled up an image of it on a screen behind him. It showed a large, grey gem that was shaped similar to a convex lens "It's made out of a rare alloy that allows an electricity charge to flow through it freely without keeping any of the charge on itself. The odd shape of it magnifies the charge, and gives it a prism-like effect so that-"

"Tech! English!" Duck ordered. "It's way too late to try deciphering your sciencey jibber-jabber!"

"Alright, then," Tech said, not looking happy. I looked around at the other confused faces and realized that I was the only one who had understood him. "If placed in a properly assembled power unit, it could be used as a super battery."

"Well why didn't you say that first?" Duck said. Tech growled at him.

"Alright, guys. We'll do a quick change into our uniforms, and we'll take the jetpacks over dere! Aaron, you and Naomi take your bike," Ace ordered.

"Uh, Ace? Pinkster shot a hole in my jetpack the other day, remember?" Tech asked. "So I'll need to take my Zoomatrix. And Aaron, Naomi; you two need to bring a laptop and that disk, just in case."

"It'll have to be my laptop; my hacker software is on there, and the disk won't unlock without it," I explained. "I could always download it onto another computer, but that takes hours, and we don't have that kind of time right now."

"Won't it be better to separate the lock from the key? You know, just in case?" Naomi asked. "In case something were to happen, God forbid, then wouldn't it be better to separate the two?"

"Good idea," Ace said. "Naomi, you take the disk and go with Tech. Aaron, you take your laptop and go on your own."

We all went back to our own rooms and met back in the control room five minutes later, where Ace went over a general plan. Tech would drop off Naomi a block away from the AcmeTech building, and I would hang out a block in the opposite direction until the all-clear was given. Then, we would all meet in front of the building and go on from there. Once everyone heard the plan, we went our separate ways.

I had parked around the corner from their HQ, so by the time I got to my bike, the others were long gone. I hopped on, revved the engine, and took off down the street at 60 mph; if Sive was involved, I didn't want to be late. I followed the directions that Tech had given me, and made it halfway there without a hitch.

Then my bike started taking turns on it's own. I tried going left, but it wanted to go right, so that's where I went. Eventually, I was way off-course, but whenever I tried turning or braking, it wouldn't, and I continued going down the streets at 60 mph. It was too fast to try to jump off; I'd become one big skid mark if I tried, so I had no choice but to stay on the bike and go where it took me.

By that time, I was panicking, and trying to get my cell phone out of my pocket without being thrown off. My bike turned into an empty parking garage, and continued going up until it hit the fourth floor. By then, I had gotten my phone out and was trying to dial Naomi's number.

My bike braked and made a really sharp turn when I had half of the number in; sharp enough to send me flying into a wall. I felt the laptop snap in the case behind me, and my phone fly out of my hand.

The hard brake and sharp turn greatly slowed down the bike before I went flying; if I had hit that wall going 60 mph, I would NOT have survived. I was probably only doing 20, but even so, it was a miracle I was only knocked unconscious.

**xoxoxoxox**

**Mastermind's POV**

I smirked at the scene on my laptop. I had hacked into the security camera systems, and what I was looking at was a plan working out perfectly.

I still had the Spy Fly in the Loonatics' HQ, and I was a little flustered when they caught on to my activities at AcmeTech so quickly. But I got over it when I realized that it was my chance to get my hands on Solomon's son.

I figured out where he had parked his vehicle when he first came here; a motorcycle that costed more than my entire master computer system. I made a small, spider-like robot that is specially designed to make it's way into a vehicle and take control of it. Once it was in, I could control it whenever I wanted, and that was just what I wanted to do. So, I used a remote control to send my spider down the streets and into his motorcycle; it was just a waiting game until I got to use it.

When the time came to break into AcmeTech, I was lucky enough to have Sive help me. She seemed different from when I saw her with Lexi; she seemed to not be fully there mentally most of the time, as if lost in thought. I didn't really care though; so long as I got my gem, and she got to Solomon, I was happy.

I really wanted that gem; the story I gave to Sive was a total lie, but she was too confused to think clear enough to realize it. AcmeTech wanted it to power the city, but I had a design for a robot that required a lot of power. The designs for the power cell Solomon sent me as an advance, with a little editing on my part, would work perfectly; I just needed the gem for it to work. In order to reach the gem, I'd need Sive's help.

I would use almost all of my robots to keep the Loonatics and police busy while Sive made her way to the gem. I would stay at my base and hack the AcmeTech computer systems to shut down all of the security systems.

When I saw that Aaron would be going with them, only separately, I knew that that was going to be my only time to act. If I didn't, then he might meet up with Sive, and that would have been bad. On top of that, it was the perfect opportunity. So, I waited until Aaron was a ways away from the HQ building, and then I took control of his motorcycle. I sent him on a route that took him much closer to my base; it would be easier to pick him up that way. I sent him into a parking garage, which was empty due to the fact that it was 2:30 AM, and threw him off of the bike.

I watched him slump to the floor on the camera of the parking garage, and activated a robot I had lying in wait for him there. It would pick him up and bring him to the base where I would keep him locked up long enough for Solomon to send his men over to pick him and his sister up.

I turned my attention away from the screen showing the garage and onto another one showing AcmeTech. The Loonatics had just arrived, and the fun was just getting started.

**A/N: OH NO! What could Mastermind be planning? Is Aaron alright? Why am I still asking you questions? (Seriously, I thought I got over this!) Find out in the next chapter! R&R!**


	16. Ch 15 Utter Confusion

**A/N: Wow, I am on a **_**roll**_** this week! I didn't think I would get another chapter up until at least Thursday, but, here it is! The bad news is that I have a really hectic weekend coming up: I'm going to a father/ daughter dance with my dad on Friday, and I have a Sunday-Monday sleepover birthday party to go to. (President's Day, for my non U.S. readers. We have Monday off.) And on Saturday? I'm going to the doctor's to get a shot that leaves me unable to use my arm all day without causing serious pain. DX **_**That **_**won't be fun! But, I do have Tuesday off, so you can expect a chapter then!**

**Anyways, on with the show!**

Ch 15 Utter Confusion

**Lexi's POV**

Ace, Rev, Duck, Slam and I made it to the AcmeTech building in under 15 minutes, and Tech got there a couple minutes later, after he had dropped off Naomi. Once we were all there, Ace let us in on his plan.

"Here's da plan, guys," he began. "Odds are, Mastermind herself is goin' after da jewel, and left us a few dozen robots ta deal with ta keep us busy. Lex, Duck; I want you two ta hang back while the rest of us go in ahead; give us a five minute head start. When we meet up with the robots, I'll call ya on da communicator. Duck; you're the alternate; if we can last in da fight for a while on our own, then you go with Lex. If not; you jump in. Lex; you're goin' straight for da gem. If ya beat Mastermind there, grab it and get out. If not… Well, dat's why I want Duck with ya. Everybody know what they're doin'?" We all nodded. "Good. Let's go!"

It was a long five minutes. I was constantly worried that something would happen and we wouldn't be in time to help. I didn't realize that I was pacing back and forth until Duck started nagging about it, which didn't help at all. When five minutes finally did pass, I ran inside with Duck hot on my heels.

We passed room after room, going slower than I preferred so we wouldn't run into anything; the power was out, and a bunch of the emergency lights weren't working. Eventually we heard a scuffle going on in the room ahead of us. Ace called literally two seconds later.

"Where are you guys?" he asked.

"I think we're one room back from you," I replied.

"If I remember correctly, dere should be a hallway somewhere to your left," Ace said. I looked around and was able to make out a hallway a few yards away. "Go down that, and you should be able ta avoid dis fight up here, and take a shortcut to da gem."

"What am I doing?" Duck asked.

"You go with Lex; we can handle dis."

"Got it."

"Be careful," I added. Then, Duck and I made our way down the hallway ahead of us, and came out in a small room. That's when we got confused; there were eight different ways to go.

"You wouldn't happen to have a map on you...?" Duck asked. I glared at him and walked up to the first entryway.

"Uh, Lexi? What are you doing?" Duck asked in an are-you-crazy tone. I shushed him and listened.

I didn't hear anything in the first five hallways, but the sixth time was the charm. I heard the hum of machinery, along with a whirring sound that I didn't recognize. I figured that that was the way to go.

"This way," I said behind me, darting down the hall. Duck followed, and we stopped before rounding a corner. We peered around the edge to see what was going on.

It was one of the large lab rooms in the building; there was a large machine in the back running some kind of test, and that was where the humming was coming from. In the far corner was a security camera scanning the room, which was causing the whirring.

"Didn't the security guards run away?" Duck asked.

"Yeah. Why?"

"Tech explained this to me once. Those cameras don't move on their own; they're remote controlled. If no one's in the security office, then who's working the cameras?"

"Mastermind probably hacked the system... We need to take out that camera. I think you'll have to do it, though; it's too far away for me to hit it for sure on the first try."

He formed an egg in his hand. "Here's hoping this isn't a tar egg!" he said as he threw it at the camera. Thankfully, it wasn't a tar egg, and it exploded on impact, taking the camera with it.

We darted out of the room and down the hall. Tech had given us a general area of where the gem was supposed to be before we left, and I was really hoping that we were going the right way. It would have been much better to have Tech there instead of Duck, but with his magnetism powers, he was more help to the other guys against the robots.

We made our way down the halls in what we hoped was the right direction, destroying any security cameras we saw along the way. Eventually we reached a door that wasn't open, and it had a complicated key pad next to it that neither of us knew how to work.

"Any ideas?" Duck asked sarcastically.

"One," I replied, firing a brain blast at the keypad. It exploded, and the door opened. Duck just stared at me. "What? It always works in the movies."

We crept in through the doorway as quietly as possible, and saw exactly what we didn't want to see. There were two robots; not exactly Mastermind's best work, but I guessed that she could only get low-grade supplies while trying to stay in hiding. That wasn't what we really didn't want to see, though.

In the middle of the room was a pedestal with a glass case on top; in the case was the almost football sized gem. There were green lasers surrounding the pedestal; probably motion sensors. There were pressure sensors on the floor as well, but those would have been out along with the power. There was a three foot radius around the pedestal where no security was evident, and someone was standing in that area, taking the glass off the case. We couldn't see who due to the bad lighting, but we could see enough to know that it wasn't Mastermind.

"Hold it right there!" Duck shouted, getting the attention of everyone in the room. The person looked at us, paused for a moment, grabbed the gem, and ran for it. The person ran through the lasers, so I guessed that they weren't working, either.

"Go!" Duck shouted as the robots approached. "I can keep these bucket heads busy!"

"Thanks!" I yelled behind me. I slid between the legs of one of the robots, and ran for the back exit that the person ran through. When _I_ hit the lasers, though, the alarm went off. _That_ I found weird, but I didn't have time to think about it; that person was _fast._

I followed the person on a winding route that went through many different floors of the building. At first, I was too far away to do anything, but I eventually got close enough to see a silhouette of the person I was chasing, and close enough to fire brain blasts ahead of me to try to slow the person down. That person was light in their feet, though, and managed to dodge all of my blasts.

When we passed under an emergency light, I was close enough to catch a glimpse of the person that made me stumble a little in surprise.

_Was that...? _I thought. _...No, it couldn't have been. There's no way that was her._

I continued running, and I got within three yards of the person, but I was starting to tire out. Then, we passed under another light, and I was close enough to know for sure who it was. I was so shocked, I tripped, and fell way behind.

_There's no way I can catch up to her now,_ I thought. _But why is she here? And what is she doing?  
_  
I had to get her attention somehow, and at that point, there was only one thing I could do.

"Sive!" I yelled. "_Sive_!" It didn't even phase her. _What's going on?  
_  
Then, when she was a good ways ahead of me, she sidestepped and phased through the wall. I stopped and looked for a way into the room that she went into, but there was none in that hallway. By the time I'd have found a way in, she would have been long gone. Sive knew how to disappear, and she was good at it.

I sat down, trying to catch my breath and make sense of what I just saw. I was confused and upset.

_Why would she do this? What happened?_

I figured out what was most likely going on right as I got a call on my communicator.

"Lex, you dere?" Ace asked. I could pick up a hint of worry in his voice, but I could tell that he was trying to hide it.

"Yeah, I'm here," I replied, still slightly out of breath.

"You alright?" he asked, sounding even more worried than before.

"I'm fine, Ace; just out of breath. How about the rest of you?"

"We're-all-fine-don't-worry-about-us," Rev replied.

"Hey, Lexi, did you see how that guy ran right through those motion sensors?" Duck asked excitedly. "How did he not set off the alarm?"

"Duck, I'm telling you, that's impossible," Tech said in a know-it-all tone.

"Not if the person in question can phase through anything," I replied. "Guys, we have a _big_ problem."

**xoxoxoxox**

**Naomi's POV**

I was pacing around, getting really anxious. It had been almost ten minutes since Ace sent me an 'All clear' text, and I was still the only one in front of the building. Aaron at least should have been there by then, but that shouldn't have worried me so much. When I tried calling him and he didn't answer; that was when I got nervous.

Then, Rev came running out of the building and stopped a little ways in front of me. He looked relatively alright, and I became a little less worried when Duck suddenly appeared next to him in the same state. Slam came out next, closely followed by Tech. Ace was next, but he waited at the door; probably for Lexi. I was about to ask them how it went, when I got a look at Rev; he seemed worried, mad and upset at the same time. Aaron and I had only been with them for a couple of days, but I knew enough to know that something was wrong; Rev was usually happy, excitable, chipper, etc. I had never seen him be anything else, and the look on his face did _not_ fall under that category. The rest of them were in a similar state.

Then, Lexi came out. Before I could see her, Ace wrapped her in a hug, and he kept one arm around her as they approached the rest of us. She looked like the rest of them, but more upset than anything else.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Where's Aaron?" Ace asked as he walked up. "He needs ta hear dis."

"I'm not sure… He hasn't shown up yet, and whenever I try calling him, it goes straight to voicemail. He's not responding to texts, either," I explained, showing even more worry than I already was.

"We've gotta find him. Tech, any ideas?" Ace asked.

Tech walked over to his 'Zoomatrix' as he called it (he wouldn't stop talking about it the whole ride over, and I just asked why he called it that!) He opened the trunk of the bike and pulled out a laptop. I kind of wanted to ask if he had a computer with him everywhere he went, but I figured that it wasn't the right time.

He worked a bit on the laptop, and in under five minutes said, "Well, I'm not sure why, but I can't get a lock on his phone or his laptop. I can lock onto his bike, though, and it's in a parking garage about six miles away from here."

"What's he doing there?" I asked, even though none of them probably had the answer.

"Let's go find out!" Ace said, which was apparently some kind of cue to the others to leave. I got onto the bike with Tech again, and we took off down the street, the rest of the team following us as Tech led the way.

We pulled into the garage not long after that, and slowly went up floor after floor, looking for Aaron. Tech told me that he couldn't pinpoint what level Aaron was on, and we would have to find out in order to tell the others where to land. On the fourth floor, we met a sight that made my blood run cold.

Aaron's motorcycle was lying on the ground, all scraped up, and based on the skid marks on the ground, it looked as if it had fallen on it's side and slid a good ways away. There was something on the ground at the far end, and I could barely recognize his phone. His laptop case was lying on the ground a ways away from the other debris.

"Guys, fourth level," Tech said into his communicator, sounding grim.

He parked his bike and stood up to inspect the damage. I just stayed where I was; if he found anything that hinted that Aaron was hurt, or worse, I would have fainted if I saw it.

The rest of the team flew in through the gap between the ceiling and the wall, and inspected the damage for themselves.

"Well..." Tech began hesitantly. "The good news is; there's no blood. If he slid with the bike, there would be, so that means that he was thrown off. The bad news is, based upon his phone and laptop case, he was thrown off here, and he's definitely not here now."

"He probably landed over here, huh?" Ace asked, standing near the laptop. Tech nodded. Ace bent down and picked up the case. He opened it, and slid out the laptop; he caught half of the screen, and the other half, along with both halves of the keyboard, fell to the floor. "I think I know why ya couldn't find his computer."

"Maybe-someone-saw-this-and-called-911?" Rev asked hopefully."Maybe-that's-why-he's-not-here?"

"I hate to say it, but probably not," Tech replied, pulling a robotic spider out from under the bike. It was trying to scuttle away, but he had a good grip on it. "I think my least favorite person in the world is involved here."

"Guys, what's going on?" I asked. Something was definitely wrong, and I wanted to know what it was. The Loonatics just looked at each other. There was a moment of silence before anyone answered.

"Naomi, in AcmeTech, we saw Sive," Lexi stated. "She was the one who took the gem."

"She _what_?" I yelped. "But I thought you said that that Mastermind person did that! Wait... Mastermind..."

"Is the one after Sive?" Lexi finished.

"But that would mean that... Oh, no no no no no..." I mumbled, sitting back down on Tech's bike. "We're too late. She already has Sive, and now she's got Aaron, too."

"And we're not stoppin' until we get them back!" Ace said, slightly brightening everyone's spirits. "We've gotta track down Mastermind, and once we do, we'll move in on the attack."

"But Sive helped in a robbery!" I said in despair. "Wouldn't she be arrested?"

"Under the circumstances, Zadavia will probably use her 'influence' to clear that up," Lexi stated. I hadn't met Zadavia yet; she was supposed to be getting back from wherever-she-went within two days. She sounded like a good person, though.

"I just hope they're both okay..." I said, staring at the remains of Aaron's laptop.

**xoxoxoxox**

**Sive's POV**

I was wandering around Mallory's base, thinking about what had happened at AcmeTech a few hours ago. It was supposed to be simple; Mallory would cut the power and leave a bunch of robots for the authorities to deal with near the entrance, while I made my way to the gem. Mallory said that she wasn't a fighter, which is why she didn't come with, but I had to give her credit; she was a pretty good hacker.

It all went according to plan until two people made it into the vault that the gem was being kept in. One of them stayed to deal with the robots that I had taken with me to the vault, while the other one chased after me. Somehow, that person recognized me. I never got a chance to see who it was, but they knew my name. It almost sounded like Lexi…

I pulled myself out of my thoughts just in time to avoid walking into _another _pole. I had spent a lot of the past few days thinking about what happened to me in the last week; a lot of it didn't add up, and I just felt lost and confused. I was heading over to Mallory's lab; she told me not to bother her while she was working on her super-generator-thingy, but I wanted answers, and at that point, I wasn't going to wait.

The door was locked, but that didn't stop me; I just continued walking and phased through it. I wasn't really prepared for what I saw on the other side, but it did start making me think a bit clearer.

There was a very large robot, almost completely assembled, standing in the middle of the room. It was at least ten feet tall, made of some kind of expensive looking, really thick metal, and had a cockpit where the head was supposed to be. Two panels making up it's chest were open, and there was a big, empty space that was probably going to be taken up by the large box-like thing in front of it. It looked like a big, black cube, but I was able to see the gem Mallory wanted inside of it, and it was connected to a lot of wires. Mallory was nowhere in sight.

I turned around to leave, to make it look as if I was never there, but Mallory was standing behind me.

"AAH! Don't do that!" I yelled, surprised by her sudden appearance.

"Didn't I tell you not to come in here?" Mallory asked in her signature sickly-sweet voice. I figured out that whenever she used it, she either wanted something, or thought you were a moron.

"What's going on here?" I asked. "That thing does _not _look like a generator!"

"I was hoping it wouldn't have to come to this…" she mumbled, rubbing her obscenely large head. "No matter. Better sooner than later I guess."

I didn't notice that she was holding a little round sphere, but I saw is as she dropped it. When it hit the floor, it let out some kind of gas. It didn't seem to affect Mallory, but I suddenly felt really weak.

"A special type of gas I've been working on. It's supposed to work only on anthros, but I've never had a chance to test it until now. Looks like it works," Mallory stated.

I would have lobbed an electricity orb at her, but I found that I couldn't move as I sank to the floor. I could only wonder what was going on, for the umpteenth time that week, as I blacked out.

**A/N: Oh, dear, things do not look good, do they? Well, guess what: THREE MORE CHAPTERS TO GO, PEOPLE! So, you'll just have to wait until Tuesday for more. Until then, R&R!**


	17. Ch 16 The Whole Story

**A/N: HAPPY PRESIDENTS DAY! I got this done a day earlier than I expected, so I'm posting it a day earlier than expected! I'm going to **_**try**_** to get the next chapter up tomorrow, but no promises. If it's not up tomorrow, expect it either later in the week, or over the weekend. I can't think of anything else to say, so I'm just going to shut up and let everyone read.**

Ch 16 The Whole Story

**Aaron's POV**

I had woken up who-knows-how-long after the crash; my watch got smashed, so I couldn't tell. I was locked in a room without a window, so I couldn't tell from that, either. I guessed that it was morning by then, but I couldn't be sure.

The room was fairly small, with a concrete floor, metal walls and ceiling, and a hanging light that was really bright. There was a discolored part of one wall that probably slid away as a door, but it hadn't opened yet, so I wasn't sure. I would have investigated all around the room, looking for a way out, but at that point, I was trying not to move.

When I crashed, I was sent flying into a wall. The impact should have snapped my spine, but my laptop was between my back and the wall; it had probably saved my life. However, I was still really sore, so I just sat against a wall, waiting for... Well, _anything_ really. It reminded me of the time Dad locked me in his office because I was practically in the same situation; I was trapped, worried about Sive, and not too optimistic of my chances of seeing the end of the week. The only differences were that instead of it being too dark, it was too bright, and when I was in the office, I didn't feel as if I had just been hit by a truck.

Then, I heard movement outside. The door to the room next to me opened, something was thrown into it, and the door closed again; there was a vent connecting my room with the one next to it, so I could hear everything clearly. Who or whatever was outside left, and then there was silence.

"Hello?" I called. If the room next to mine was another cell, then someone was probably in there. But, there was no reply, so I figured it was some kind of storage room.

A few hours later (I think,) I heard something moving in the room next to me.

"Hello?" I called again, hoping for a reply.

"You don't have to shout, you know," replied an annoyed, groggy sounding, female voice.

"Sorry. You alright over there?"

"Define, 'alright,'" she replied sarcastically. "You?"

"Well, I was thrown off of a moving motorcycle, and now I'm stuck wherever 'here' is. I've had better days."

"Ouch."

"Exactly. So, what are you in for?"

"Poking my nose where it didn't belong, as usual," she stated matter-of-factly. "You?"

"I'm not really sure..."

"Ah. Well, when I do get out of here, I'm going to teach that bitch Mallory a lesson."

"Mallory Mastermind?"

"So _that's_ her last name... You know her?"

"I know _of_ her. The only reason I came here was for two things; stopping Mastermind from doing something I _really_ didn't want her to do, and I was also hoping she would be able to answer a few questions."

"Questions about...?" the girl began.

"Not sure I should be telling you that..."

"Yeah, that makes sense. I never trust anyone... Well, _ever_, actually."

"Any particular reason why?"

"Yeah, like I'd tell _you_ that. I don't even know your name!"

"I'm Aaron. And you are...?"

There was no reply for a few minutes. Eventually, she responded, with a lot of venom in her voice.

"As if you don't already know!"

"Huh?"

"Oh, come on, Aaron, how slow do you think I _am_? I can figure out for myself that this whole thing was a scheme made up by you and Dad!"

"Me and...? What?" Then, it hit me like a wall. "..._Sive_?"

"Congratulations: You know who you're keeping locked up in a metal box. Somebody give this guy a medal..."

"In case you don't already know; I'm kinda locked up here, too. Wait, if you're here, then that means... Aww, _shit_!" I shouted. "Mastermind was further ahead of us than we thought!"

"Huh?" There was a pause; I guessed that she was trying to piece everything she knew together, which would be difficult based upon the information she was missing. "Oh, my head hurts. I can't make sense of anything anymore!"

"Can I help you clear things up?"

"Oh, yeah, because we all know how well it turned out _last_ time you helped me!"

"Ouch. Okay, I _probably_ had that coming-"

"Ya think?" she interrupted sarcastically.

"Sive, listen. You don't have the whole story. If you would just give me ten minutes, then you would understand everything."

"Well, I'm kind of a captive audience here," she replied, sounding sarcastic again. She was a lot sassier than I remembered.

"Ha, ha, very funny. It's not like I can go anywhere here, either. Not like I wouldn't if I could..."

"So you could leave me again?" she asked with venom in her voice.

"Ouch, again. And, again, I _probably_ had that coming. But Sive, you don't understand; I never told Dad what I was doing every week, I never told him you were still in town, and I never sold you out to him."

"Then how did Dad know exactly where and when to send Dumb and Dumber that night?"

"He had someone follow me the last time I saw you; that guy told him everything."

"That still doesn't explain why _you_ weren't there. If you were so against Dad finding me, then why didn't you at least _try_ to stop him?"

"That's just it..." I mumbled. Sive probably couldn't hear it, but she would have heard a lot of regret in my voice if she did. I had gone over that night so many times in my head, and there was one conclusion that I came to over and over again. This was the one part of the story I never shared with anyone, not even Naomi, and it had kept me up at night on many occasions. I started speaking again, only louder so that Sive could hear. "...I didn't. I didn't try to stop him, and I've been regretting it every day ever since. He took me into his office as I was leaving to meet you, and ended up locking me in there as he sent those two guys in my place. But I did almost nothing to try getting away when I realized what was going on. I tried running, but two guys came out of nowhere and grabbed me. I tried finding a way out of the office, but gave up when I realized that the doors were locked and the windows were barred. I should've tried harder to get away, I shouldn't have given up so quickly, I should've... I should've..." I trailed off, thinking Sive didn't want to hear what I could've done, what I _should've_ done. As far as I knew, she wanted nothing to do with me, anyway. "I broke my promise to Mom, Sive... I let you down... And I'm sorry."

There was silence from the other room. I didn't hear anything at all, and it stayed that way for a long time. Eventually, I was barely able to hear Sive ask, "Where have you been all these years?" I hoped that that meant that she was believing me, so I continued speaking.

"I regained Dad's trust so I could get close to him. He made Naomi his personal secretary, completely forgetting her relation to Mom, and she eavesdropped on him for me. Whenever she heard something about you, she'd tell me. We never heard anything about where you were, who you were with; nothing we heard helped us find you. Then, Naomi overheard a conversation between Dad and Mastermind, which led us to the Loonatics, and now I'm here."

"...So _Mastermind_ is the one working with Dad?" she asked after a moment, still sounding quiet. "How do you explain the video she showed me, then?"

"Video...?"

"It was of you talking the Loonatics into capturing me for Dad."

"I know I talked the Loonatics into helping me _help_ you," I began, trying to find an explanation for it. "Hey, wait a second! She must have a camera in there! Sive, you have no idea how easy it is to edit video and sound bits to make it look like people say and do what you want; especially for a techno path like Mastermind."

There was silence again. Normally, a five minute long pause after every other time I spoke would have annoyed me, but this would have been hard to process, so I didn't say anything.

"Well, if she is a techno path, it would explain all the robots. Well, Sive, you _really_ screwed up this time," she said to herself.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm guessing that you were heading over to AcmeTech when you crashed?"

"Yeah. The Loonatics wanted us to come along because we suspected Mastermind's involvement."

"She was never there," Sive stated matter-of-factly. "She convinced me that the gem was actually her property and she would put it to a good use... Looking back on it, it was a really _lousy_ story. I was just so confused at the time, though, I couldn't tell... If I did, then maybe we wouldn't be stuck here..."

"Sive, this is _not_ your fault!" I declared. "Don't blame yourself for this; there was nothing you could do!" I decided to ignore the fact that she made it sound as if she had stolen the gem for Mastermind for the time being.

"Maybe you should take your own advice," she advised me, sounding either knowing, smug, or both; I couldn't tell.

"Not easy advice to take. Not when I've been beating myself up for it for almost nine years... Do you think you could forgive me?"

She paused again, and I was dreading her answer.

After a moment, she gave me her reply. "Only if you can forgive me."

"For what?"

"For... _Everything_. For not believing you, for not trusting you, for having a big part in getting us stuck in this situation-"

"Hey! What did I say about blaming yourself?" I said in mock anger.

"You know, Aaron, you're pretty lousy backup-"

"Hey!"

"But you're one pretty good brother."

I laughed; I knew that we were okay, and at that time, I was the happiest guy in the world. Then I remembered the situation we were in, and I wasn't so happy anymore.

"Sive, I swear I'm going to get us out of this," I said, standing up and ignoring my protesting back. I let her down once, and I had no intention of doing it again.

"Don't waste your breath," Sive said. "I can phase through solid objects, remember? I'll just phase through my door and open yours from the outside."

"And you didn't try this earlier because...?"

"Hey, I still wasn't thinking clearly then; cut me a break! Now, just give me two minutes, and we'll be outta here!"

At first, I didn't hear anything. I figured that her powers were silent, so I didn't expect to hear anything until my door was opening. Then, a very loud, annoying alarm went off for about three seconds, and ended as abruptly as it started.

"What happened?" I yelled, uncovering my ears.

"Mastermind knows I can phase... She must have set that alarm to break my concentration whenever I try it. _Damn_!" Sive replied, obviously not happy. Unfortunately, I heard it through the vent, meaning that she didn't get out.

"...Hey Aaron? Are you standing near a wall?" she asked after a moment.

"Yeah. Why?"

"Get to the middle of the room and cover your ears."

"Why-?"

"Just do it!"

I did as I was told and waited. A few seconds later, there was a bright flash of light, a loud booming sound that I could hear even though I was covering my ears, and the room shook, making me fall over. The hanging light in my room got even brighter, overloaded, and exploded, leaving me in darkness.

"Sive?" I yelled. I got really worried when there was no response. Then, I heard someone moving metal across metal coming from the door. I stood up and prepared to fight off whatever came in, just in case. The door opened, someone walked in, and I relaxed when I realized it was Sive. She was using her electricity powers that Lexi had told me about to generate light from one of her hands, and it lit up the entire room.

For a moment, I just stood there, looking at her. She looked a lot different than I remembered, and yet that had been nine years ago. She was a lot taller now, and when she was nine, her hair had been in a short bob cut, whereas it came past her shoulders now, and it was wavy. Her eyes were one of the only things that I recognized, along with her short muzzle, which together always reminded me of Mom.

But the only thing I could say was, "You're _green_!" I must've sounded like an idiot.

"And you're pink, but that's not stopping you," she said sarcastically.

"I'm _not_ pink! And why is your muzzle still white?"

"Like I would know that! Come on; let's get out of here." She turned around and started walking away, so I followed. I saw the remains of Sive's door in the hallway.

"What did you _do_?" I asked in bewilderment.

"Mastermind doesn't know about my electricity powers, and the door wasn't that thick. Enough said."

We continued down the halls in silence; we didn't know when we would find Mastermind, and we wanted to at least try to remain unseen for as long as possible. Eventually, we reached a large room that looked like some kind of lab, and Sive stopped.

"Where's the robot?" she asked, looking around the room for something that was apparently supposed to be there, and wasn't.

"What robot?"

"Mastermind was working on a huge robot in here, and now it's not here! She was using that gem for something, too… I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that that's a bad thing."

"Probably." I looked around and saw a computer in one corner of the room, and it gave me and idea. "I know how we can find out," I said as I ran to the computer, sat down, and began hacking into the system. Sive followed and watched silently as I hacked past all of the security and into the computer. It was a rough job without the flash drive, and Mastermind would know she was hacked almost immediately, but we were leaving as soon as I was done, anyways, so it didn't matter.

In less than ten minutes, I was in, and I began looking around for anything related to the gem. I pulled up plans for the super power cell MCI was currently developing, and knew that Dad had given them to Mastermind. I barely recognized them, though; they had been edited a lot.

The next one I pulled up was for a large robot like Sive had described, yet I noticed that it had no weapons other than the fact that the arms could be used as battering rams.

I looked around all the plans in the same file, and one other design caught my eye. It was another one from MCI; an old plan for a force field-like shield. We had locked that design in our 'vault' years ago; the vault was a secure computer for any plans that were ruled impossible for the time, or for items we were discontinuing. I figured Dad had given those to her, too.

"Well, this isn't good," I said, looking over the plan, and comparing it to the power cell design.

"What's not good?" Sive asked, peering over my shoulder.

"These plans... If this power cell was edited as need be, and the gem was used as the source, it could potentially power the shield." Sive looked confused. "The plans for the power cell and the shield are both from MCI. Mastermind has edited them to fit her needs, and it could actually work. If combined with that robot, it could potentially be unstoppable. We designed that shield to be impervious to military type weapons; explosives, lasers, missiles, etcetera. It would take something outside-the-box to break the shield."

"Maybe we should try figuring out where it went..."

"Good idea," I replied, opening the internet and going to an Acmetropolis news website. I saw the clock on the computer, and was shocked to see that it was almost seven o'clock.

I was hoping not to find anything on the website, but their breaking news story was exactly what I was looking for. I clicked the link, and a live feed opened up.

"We interrupt our regularly scheduled program for an emergency news broadcast," a female news anchor said. "We'll go right to Vince in the news helicopter with the story. Vince?"

It switched from a view of the woman to a view of a man in a helicopter. "Thank you, Dana," he began. "Citizens of Acmetropolis, if you are near the docks, or approaching them, get away from the area. There is currently a rampaging robot being controlled by none other than Mallory Mastermind, formerly Mallory Casey, and it is destroying everything in the area."

"We must have just missed her!" I shouted in annoyance. Sive shushed me and continued listening.

"The Loonatics are bravely trying to stop her, but there is apparently some type of force field around the robot that they have so far been unable to penetrate. We'll now switch to a live view of the scene."

It wasn't a comforting sight. Buildings were reduced to rubble, a few people were still trying to get away, and the carnage continued as Mastermind used the robot's hammer-like arms to destroy anything still standing. The Loonatics came on-screen, and they all tried to bring down the robot.

Slam went first. He spun around in a tornado and tried ramming into the robot. When he was about ten feet away, a strange teal colored field appeared around the robot, and Slam ran right into it. He bounced off right away, and went flying off-screen. Rev looked as if he was about to try something, but was put off by the result of Slam's attempt, and stayed put. Duck tried throwing multiple eggs at it, but even the explosive ones had no effect. Ace and Lexi fired a laser and a brain blast, respectively, at the same time, but they bounced off as well. Tech tried using his magnetism directly on the robot, and it worked. The robot was surrounded by a green glow, and it was slightly slowed down. However, Mastermind used the robot to pick up a large piece of a building, and she hurled it at him. Rev pulled Tech out of the way just in time before he was flattened. All in all, it wasn't looking good.

"Hey, Aaron?" Sive began. "What kind of out-of-the-box approaches can you think of?"

"Well, a concussion blast could do it, but we're not underwater, so that wouldn't work. A super powered E.M.P. could do it, but finding one strong enough to bypass the shield itself to hit the power cell that's charging the shield generator would be almost impossible. We could crush it under a huge weight, but we would need the equivalent of a mine collapse to do it, and there's nothing around here that would work. If it was struck by lightning it would work, but the odds of being struck by lightning are 1 in 750,000-"

"You know, I could potentially boost those odds by a lot," Sive said sarcastically.

"You mean like do to that field what you did to that door back there?" I was really hoping that she wasn't thinking of trying it, and I expressed why when Sive nodded in response. "Lexi told me how your powers work, and I know you won't be able to generate enough power on your own to break the shield. The amount of power you'd need to take away would be able to power maybe six high rises, and holding that kind of charge could really hurt you!"

"Aaron, can you think of anything else that's possible?"

I desperately tried to come up with something, anything else we could do, but when I still had nothing after almost ten minutes, I had to give in.

"So maybe I can't? That still doesn't mean you should go out there and put your life on the line for-"

"Aaron, I'm going to say this once," Sive interrupted forcefully. "It won't kill me, and if I don't do this, I will never be able to forgive myself. This actually _is_ my fault, and if I can stop it, I _will_! I've done enough damage so far; if I have the chance to do something _good_ for a change, I'm _not_ letting it pass me by."

I sighed. She was so much like Mom; whenever she put her mind to something, there was no changing it. "Fine. But just know that if _you_ hurt _your_self; _I'll_ never forgive _my_self."

"Deal. Now, let's get over there."

"How? They could be miles away!" I didn't actually know where we were yet, so I had no idea where the docks were from there.

"What kind of building do you think this was? It used to be a warehouse for shipments going out on cargo ships! We're at the docks right now!"

"Then let's get out of here!"

**A/N: Guess how many chapters are left after this? If you said two, then you're correct! Almost over… DX So, want to know what's going to happen? Then read the next chapter! R&R!**


	18. Ch 17 Results

**A/N: I'M SORRY! I tried getting it all typed up yesterday, I really did! But, as you can see, it's a long one, and I finished it at 10:15 last night, and I kinda… Fell asleep before I could post it. DX SORRY!**

**Anyways, one more chapter! 0.0 Where does the time go? I'll have it up either later this week or this weekend. **

Ch 17 Results

**Sive's POV**

We were able to run to where the robot was in a short amount of time; once the Loonatics had shown up, Mastermind stopped moving for the most part, which made it really easy to catch up to them. Aaron and I ended up behind Mastermind, so she didn't see us, and the Loonatics were too busy to notice us. We stopped when we were a block away to figure out what we were doing.

"What do you want me to do, Sive?" Aaron asked. He seemed to figure that I was running the show at that point, and in a way, I was. Not that I wanted to, though; I wasn't the leader-type.

"What you need to do is keep Mastermind's attention away from _that_," I replied, pointing towards a yellow street side transformer box. "I'll sneak over there, take away the necessary power, and draw Mastermind towards me. I'll only have one shot, and lightning can be unpredictable, so I want my odds to be as good as possible. I'll only be able to take enough energy to break the shield, but then the robot itself will be up to the Loonatics."

"Got it," Aaron said, standing up. "And Sive? Promise me you'll be okay."

"I promise; don't worry about me. Now go," I ordered. He ran off towards the fray, and I ran towards the transformer. The transformer was in front of a building on the corner in a place where Mastermind would be able to see me if she looked around, so I crouched behind the adjacent side of the building. I waited there until I was sure Mastermind's attention was away from me. In the meantime, I watched the scene unfold.

"Hey, fathead!" Aaron yelled from across the street from me. Mastermind turned to look at him.

"How did you...?" she started. "Never mind. I'll just get rid of you along with the Loonatics!"

"You can try!" Aaron taunted, dodging out of the way as Mastermind hurled a chunk of what looked like the street at him.

"Aaron, what are you doing?" Lexi yelled. Rev ran over, grabbed him, and pulled him by the rest of the team. Aaron said something to them quietly so Mastermind couldn't hear; probably a brief explanation as to what was going on. They all darted in separate directions as Mastermind hurled another chunk of debris at them.

"If only I was able to build some weaponry for this thing! Then you'd all be gone by now!" Mastermind yelled in annoyance. She had previously told me that she was short on supplies, and I was really happy that was the case.

The others were keeping Mastermind sufficiently distracted, so I ran to the transformer. I put my hand on it, and began drawing electricity.

At first, it felt tingly all up my arm. Not like phasing tingly, but tingly like receiving a mild shock after rubbing your hair with a balloon. It became steadily stronger, and stronger, until it eventually went from a mild shock in my arm to a really, really, painful shock all over. It didn't stop, and it didn't fade; it only got stronger. I still didn't have enough power, though, so I continued drawing electricity. I was able to roughly sense how much power I had in my system at one time, so I would know when to cut-off. I saw the lights in the building across the street go off, and I really hoped Mastermind didn't notice.

It didn't look as if she had, though; the others were doing a good job with the distraction. Rev was running zigzags in front of her, taunting the whole time, while Slam, Ace, and Tech covered him from flying debris, (Mastermind seemed to throw stuff at Tech more than the others, though.) Lexi and Duck continued directly attacking Mastermind to make it look as if they hadn't given up, even though whatever they tried bounced off the shield. Aaron was standing off to the side, watching me anxiously out of the corner of his eye, but acting as if his attention was on the scene in front of him.

I watched for as long as I could, but it didn't take long for me to start seeing stars from the pain, so I closed my eyes tightly. I still didn't have enough power, so I gritted my teeth and kept going. By that time, four buildings had gone dark, and the streetlights were fading.

After what seemed like hours, but in reality was a couple minutes, I felt as if I was about to come apart at the seams, but I had finally drawn enough power from the grid. I stopped using my powers to take energy, and instead focused on keeping it in my system. I didn't take my hand off of the transformer, though; I was using it as a support, and I probably wouldn't have been able to stand without it.

_It's time to draw the mouse to the trap_, I thought. I opened my eyes and saw that the scene hadn't changed much; the only real differences were that Aaron seemed way more freaked than before, and half of the block didn't have power. Mastermind still hadn't noticed me or the lack of power, but it was time to change that.

"Hey, melon head!" I yelled. She probably heard that one before, but I wasn't feeling up to being clever and original at that time.

Mastermind turned around and was shocked to see me.

"Well, what a surprise!" she exclaimed. "How did you two get out?" I figured the other one she was referring to was Aaron. In the background, everyone stopped and just watched from where they were.

"It's not like you made it difficult," I replied sarcastically.

"I suppose you know what's going on now," she said. It wasn't a question, it was a statement, but it gave me an idea as to what I could say to annoy her. I used the tactic on Dumb and Dumber all the time; annoy the crap out of them to draw them closer.

"Yep. Oh, and by the way, that was a _really_ lousy story you gave me. You'd think someone who's actually as smart as you claim to be would be able to come up with something _way_ better." Most smart people have the same weakness; if you make fun of how smart they are, or say that they're not as smart as they think, then they get angry.

That was exactly what happened. "Whether or not that's true, I was still able to outsmart _you_," she said through gritted teeth. It was as if we were having a conversation over lunch, and yet, so long as she had that shield, Mastermind had all the time in the world. I, however, was not going to be able to hold out much longer, so I needed to wrap it up quickly.

"Congratulations: You were able to outsmart the only person here without a middle school education." That was technically true; Dad had kicked me out when I was eight, so that meant that the last time I was in school was third grade.

That made her even angrier, and she took a few steps towards me. I figured one more jab would do it, so I said, "And besides; I'm one step ahead of you. What I have up my sleeve is something that you _really_ should know about, but you don't, and, if you'll pardon the cliché, your ignorance will be your downfall."

"We'll see about that!" she yelled, running towards me in the robot. Aaron moved as if he were about to run after her, but I glared at him, so he stayed put. Like I said, lightning could be unpredictable, so I wanted to make sure Mastermind was the only thing in range.

I focused all of the energy to my free hand, and waited until Mastermind was close enough. Even though all of the energy was in my hand, it still hurt all over, but I would be able to send it all off in one blast that way.

I waited until she was about 25 feet away from me, meaning I was 15 feet away from the shield itself. If she got any closer, then I would have been affected by the blast as well, so that was my time to send out the energy. I raised my hand, and fired.

I was able to see the energy leave my hand and hit the shield. For a moment, it stopped, and I was worried that it wasn't going to work; all of the energy was put into that one blast, so I didn't have a second chance. Then, there was a huge flash of light which was closely followed by an ear-splitting thunder crack. There was a secondary cracking sound, but I didn't know what caused it. After every last volt left my system, the pain disappeared, and I felt numb. My legs gave out from under me, and I blacked out before the light faded away.

At first when I woke up, I still felt numb, and I couldn't hear anything; the thunder was really loud, and because I was standing right next to it, my ears were still ringing. After a few minutes, I was able to feel someone gingerly shaking me awake. My hearing came back, too, and I was able to recognize a voice.

"Sive, wake up!" someone shouted. My hearing wasn't all that clear yet, so I couldn't recognize it. "Come on, Sive, you promised me!"

_Aaron.  
_  
"Yeah, I did," I mumbled, opening my eyes. "And it didn't kill me, just like I said, so don't have a cow."

I made out at least three people laughing behind me, and Aaron just looked annoyed. "Do you have any idea how _worried_ I was?"

"Yes, and that's why I told you not to have a cow." The people behind me laughed again. I sat up and rubbed my head; I still had a splitting headache, and I was sore all over on top of that.

"She's alright," I heard one of the people behind me say, with a very heavy Brooklyn accent. I looked over my shoulder and saw Lexi right behind me, with Ace and Duck not too far behind her.

"Nice shot," Ace said, pointing towards a pile of metal parts about 30 feet away. Slam and Rev were standing near it, examining it.

"Did I do that? Because I was just aiming to take out the shield."

"No, you only got the shield," Lexi reassured. "The power cell exploded, so that badly damaged the robot. Slam got over there and demolished it before Mastermind could finish you off, and believe me when I say that she would have."

"Did I miss anything else?" I asked.

"Tech put Mastermind in one of his special containment bubbles so de authorities could safely transport her back ta her usual cell in the local prison," Ace said, pointing over his shoulder to a large, pink bubble floating in mid-air. The police were loading it into the back of an armored car, and Tech was not too far away. I could barely make out a shaken-up Mastermind sitting inside. "Not de villain he had in mind when makin' it, but hey, it works."

"Why does Tech have the gem?" I asked when I noticed him holding it. It looked as if it was still in one piece.

"Turns out those scientists at AcmeTech don't want it anymore," Duck explained. "Apparently it can't be used for what they wanted it for, so it's as good as scrap to them. Tech asked them for it, so they gave it to him. They don't even care that you took it anymore."

"Does that by any chance mean that I'm in the clear for that?" I asked hopefully. "Sorry about that, by the way."

"Don't even worry about it," Lexi said. "You were in a bad situation; we get it. And… That was kind of my fault." I looked at her questioningly. "Well, we should have told you right away when Aaron came to us; this whole problem wouldn't have happened. My bad."

"_Our_ bad," Ace corrected.

"Actually, if you had, I probably would have skipped town," I explained. "It's honestly bad for my life expectancy to stick around when Dad knows exactly where to find me. Let's just say we're even."

"Deal," Lexi said.

"Speaking of Dad, where's-?" Aaron began, before he was cut off by a shout from behind us.

"_Aaron_!" We all looked in the direction it came from, but I couldn't see past everyone from my position on the ground, and I still wasn't feeling up to standing up quite yet, so I just stayed put.

"Speak of the devil..." Aaron mumbled so that only I could hear. He stood up and was immediately attack-hugged by a woman with long brown hair and dressed all in purple. I didn't see her face, so I wasn't sure who she was; I had a pretty good guess, though.

"What happened to you? Where did you go? Are you alright? Did you hear what happened? What was that flash of light and booming sound just now? Is everyone else-" she frantically asked before Aaron cut her off.

"I'm fine, and I think there's someone here who you want to see more than me," Aaron said, prying the woman off him. She turned to look at the rest of us, and that was when I saw her face.

"Hey, Naomi," I said with a smile.

"Si-Si-Sive?" she stuttered, standing still and staring at me. Aaron had the same reaction, too, so I wasn't particularly surprised; apparently, I looked way different than I did last time they saw me.

"No, I'm the Easter Bunny," I replied sarcastically.

"You're... You're really... Sive!" she yelled, attack hugging me; she had to crouch down to do it.

"Naomi... Can't... Breathe..." I choked out; she had grabbed me around the neck.

"Sorry!" she said, letting me go.

"Dios mio..." I muttered.

"When did you learn Spanish?" Aaron asked.

"I'll have to tell you about that later," I said. "Help me up?" I was feeling up to standing by then, and Aaron helped me. Even though I felt like I was able to stay standing myself, Aaron insisted on supporting me.

"So, uh, what now?" Duck asked.

"I was thinkin' dat you, Rev and Slam would stay here and make sure da situation was handled, while da rest of us went back ta Mastermind's base," Ace said.

"Why would you want to do that?" Naomi asked.

"I'd love to get my hands on her computers, and figure out what else she's hiding there," Tech stated; I didn't notice that he had walked up to the rest of us until he started talking. "Ace and Lexi don't like dealing with the press, they typically leave Slam and Rev alone because they can't understand them, and we need someone here to make sure Duck doesn't embellish too much on the story. Aaron, Sive; you two are the only ones here who know where it is. Sive, are you...?"

"I'll be fine," I reassured. I felt okay enough to walk so long as Aaron continued supporting me.

"Then let's go," Lexi said. We all started walking towards the base, and Aaron was still supporting me. We caught each other up along the way.

"So, when did you two get here?" I asked Aaron and Naomi.

"A few days ago," Naomi replied. "We spent a week on the road to avoid your dad. He _really_ wants to get his hands on you."

"Any idea why?" I asked with interest; the question had bugged me for years, and I was hoping they knew the answer.

"We don't have a definite answer," Aaron began, "but we do know that you apparently have some kind of key that he wants. Do you by any chance know what he's talking about?"

"As far as I know, I don't have any keys. Well, I do have a set of lock picks, which _could_ qualify as keys, but I don't think he's after those."

"Why do you have lock picks, of all things?" Duck asked.

"Well, as most of you already know, I was staying in the New Chicago Navy District." I laughed to myself at the looks of horror on Naomi's and Aaron's faces. "You pick up a few things out there. Not that I use what I know very often, but it could come in handy one day."

"Oh, brother…" Aaron mumbled. "You've seriously been hanging out _there_ for the past few years?"

"Not much choice, but it wasn't that bad. I made a few friends out there, _not _criminals, the weather was nice, and I had a relatively nice place to stay, so it was pretty okay."

"Hey, guys? How long was I gone?" Aaron asked the others, referring to his disappearance.

"About 14 hours," Tech asked without missing a beat.

"Jeez, I almost missed a whole _day!_ Wait, doesn't that mean that today is…?"

"August 26," Tech helped.

"Really?" Naomi, Aaron, and I all asked in disbelief.

_When did _that _happen?_ I thought. Apparently, through all of the confusion of the last few days, I had lost track of the date.

"Why? Somethin' important?" Ace asked.

"Yeah," Aaron responded. He looked at me and said cheerily, "Happy birthday, Sive!"

"Seriously? Today's your birthday?" Lexi asked in disbelief. "Well, this must be one of the worst birthdays you've ever had."

"Would you believe me if I said I'd had worse?" It was true; my 10th birthday was spent during my first few weeks in New Chicago, and I was living on the streets at the time. It was pretty crappy.

The rest laughed and wished me a happy birthday, which was something that I wasn't used to. In New Chicago, my birthday wasn't really a special day; it was just another, regular, old day. Nothing special really happened, so I stopped recognizing it as my birthday. 

"So, how old are you now?" Tech asked.

"18."

"Wow. Lexi was right; you _are_ a lot younger than the rest of us!" Duck speculated. Ace, Tech and Lexi glared at him.

We caught each other up on a few other things as well, such as who Mastermind actually was, how and why Aaron and Naomi got there, and the whole story with Mastermind and I.

At that point, we reached the building, so I directed people as to where to go. "Tech, there's a lab down that hallway. There's a computer there, along with other random gadgets you'll probably want to take a look at. Aaron, I brought stuff with me from New Chicago that I want back. Could you come with me to grab it?"

"Sure thing," he said. "We'll catch up with you guys later."

Naomi opted to go with the others, so it was just Aaron and I. We headed up to a small room that I had stayed in, and my messenger bag was sitting on the cot in the room, right where I left it.

"You know, Sive..." Aaron began as I started gathering my things and stuffing them back into the bag. "You never did tell me why Mom held you back that day."

When Mom had originally given me the necklace, and told me not to tell anyone I had it, I thought she meant _everyone._ I had realized years later that she just meant people like Dad, but that was after I had gone to New Chicago, so Aaron never knew.

I pulled the necklace out from under my shirt and showed it to him. "She gave me her necklace."

"Wow… I wonder if Dad knows you have this?"

"As far as I know, he doesn't." I took the necklace back and put it on again. Aaron helped me get the rest of my things, and I slung the bag over my shoulder.

"Well, that's it. Let's get back to the others," I said.

"I'm afraid I can't let you do dat," a voice said behind us. It was a familiar voice with a New York accent; a voice I had hoped to never hear again. 

Aaron and I whipped around to see Dumb and Dumber standing right behind us.

"Where did you two come from?" Aaron asked in disbelief.

"We've been here for a while now," Dumb explained. "We were sent tah pick you two up an hour ago, but when we showed up, no one was here, so we waited around. We saw you two walkin' around, so we followed you, and here we are."

I tried forming an electricity orb in my hand, but I couldn't hold a charge, so it withered and died. Aaron and I were trapped, and Aaron stepped in front of me protectively. I had an idea, though, so I grabbed onto his shirt and whispered, "When I push you, start running."

He didn't question me as Dumb asked the usual question. "Now are you gonna come wit' us dis time, or are we gonna have tah do dis da hard way?"

I gave the usual reply. "Well, you know me." I pushed Aaron forward, and he started running with me right behind him, still holding his jacket. I phased right as Aaron was about to run into them, and because I was holding onto him, Aaron phased with me. We went through them and continued running. I could hear Dumb and Dumber yelling at each other in confusion (that was the first time they had ever seen me use my powers,) but it didn't take long for them to realize that they should _probably _run after us.

Aaron and I were running all around the building, trying to lose them. It didn't take very long for me to start feeling weak again, and Aaron had to support me as we continued running. It also didn't take long for us to reach a dead end. I tried phasing through a wall, but I was too weak, and it didn't work; we were trapped again, but there really was no way out that time.

"Dat explains all de trouble we've been havin' wit' you," Dumb said as he and Dumber entered the room. "But now dere's no gettin' away."

"The boss will be happy with us for a change," Dumber put in.

"Exactly. Now, I'll admit, if ya tried, you two may be able ta get past me. But my partner here? Not so much," Dumb stated matter-of-factly. The sad part was that he was right; Dumber was all brawn and no brain, but he was still about twice Aaron's size.

"Aaron, we've got to try something," I whispered.

"I know..." he replied. "What if I kept the big guy busy? Then you could probably get away from the short guy and get the others."

"Are you kidding? That guy will have you out cold in under 30 seconds, and there's no way I'll be able to get away from the other one in my condition!"

"Got any better ideas?"

I didn't, so I shook my head. Aaron immediately got to work, and darted forward to attract their attention, and then to the side, as if making for the door. Dumber grabbed him by the back of the shirt and threw him backwards. Aaron was alright, and it kept the two distracted, so I darted around the other side and out the door. I heard Dumb yell behind me, and as I rounded a corner I saw him running after me.

I ran as long as I could, but it didn't take long for me to tire out again, so I ran into a large storage room and hid behind some boxes to catch my breath. I heard Dumb run in behind me.

"I know you're in here!" he yelled. "I have a super sense of smell, ya know! I'll find you!"

_Shit_, I thought. _That's how he always finds me._ I crawled to a different hiding spot behind another crate as I heard him approach, trying to stay out of sight.

I stopped hearing him move, so I peered around the crate to see if I could see him. I stood up when I didn't and I turned around to try heading back for the door. He was standing right behind me, as always.

"AAH! Seriously, how do you keep on doing that?" I yelled.

"Natural talent," he replied. "Now dere's no where tah run to, and you've got no brother tah help you now!"

"But she does have me," a voice said from somewhere to our right. Dumb turned to look just in time to see a pink blast heading right for him, which then hit him head-on and sent him flying backwards into a crate. It looked as if he was unconscious.

"Where did you come from?" I asked as Lexi walked into view.

"I heard them from the lab," she replied. "Tech and Ace are helping Aaron with the other guy. I take it these guys are Dumb and Dumber?"

"You got it." I looked back at where Dumb had landed. There was something I wanted to ask Lexi, but I wasn't sure how, and it was going to bug me until I did.

"Something wrong?" Lexi asked.

"I'm just wondering... Why would you help me?"

"Huh?" Lexi seemed genuinely confused by this question.

"Well, I mean, I did inadvertently help Mastermind try killing you and all... So, why would you help me after that?"

"First of all; you said that you didn't know what Mastermind was going to use the gem for, and that we were never mentioned," Lexi stated, referring to my recounting of the story from the way over. "Second of all; you're my friend, Sive. Why _wouldn't_ I help?"

Lexi wrapped me in a friendly hug, and I returned it. We separated, and she said, "I also owed you for the whole Melvin incident."

We laughed, but stopped when we heard something moving behind us. We turned around and saw that Dumb had disappeared.

"How does he _always _do that...?" I asked in awe.

"You should see how quickly they disappear after Dad's done yelling at them for failing him all the time," Naomi said as she walked into the room. Ace, Tech, and Aaron were right behind her. "The big guy disappeared, too."

"You alright?" I asked Aaron as he rubbed his head.

"After fighting for two minutes one-on-one with that guy, I just have one thing to say; I miss the motorcycle crash." We all laughed. "And I have another reason to _really_ hate Dad. I think I'm going to take a cue from you and ditch my last name; I do _not _want to be associated with him anymore."

"Well, you _have _to have a last name, Aaron," Naomi said in a motherly tone. "You do too, Sive."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," I said, brushing off the comment. "What, pray tell, would I use as a last name?"

"How about Thurne?" Aaron asked.

"Thurne?"

"Oh, yeah, that's right!" Aaron said, hitting himself on the head. "You never knew Mom's maiden name! Naomi told me when I was 14; a year after you had left."

"Thurne…" I repeated, mulling it over. "Yeah, sure, why not?"

"So, what are you three going ta do now?" Ace asked.

"Well, I'm taking that disk to the feds," Aaron stated. "Let Dad get his, and all that jazz."

"I'm with him," Naomi said, pointing towards Aaron.

"I'm not sure..." I said.

"You know, our offer still stands," Lexi stated, looking at me hopefully.

"Even after all this, you still want me to join?" I asked in complete disbelief.

"Well, yeah. Why _wouldn't_ we? Don't answer that," Lexi said, making me laugh.

I could only wonder, for the third time that week, what I was getting into.

**A/N: AWWW! HAPPY ENDING! …Well, it's not quite over yet. I've got a few more loose ends to tie up, but that will be done in the next/last chapter. ;~; I can't believe it's almost over! **

**Anyways, please R&R!**


	19. Epilogue

**A/N: LAST CHAPTER! ;~; This is a sad moment for me… But I'll get a lot of satisfaction when I click that "Complete" button! XD Anyways, I'm keeping this short and letting everybody read.**

Epilogue

_One week later..._

**Sive's POV**

"See, Sive? Now you're officially one of us!" Lexi exclaimed, looking me over for the eightieth time.

After being pressured by everyone else a week earlier, I decided to join. I was hesitant only because I didn't think I would be accepted by everyone after everything that had happened, but they managed to convince me that they really were over it, so I had no reason to say no.

They had to special order their uniforms whenever they needed a new one (which was pretty often based upon how often they were ripped up,) and mine had just come in. It was the same as everyone else's, except it had a yellow-green triangle to match my fur. Even so, it looked like it was going to be the highlight of Lexi's day.

"Doesn't exactly blend into the crowd, though, does it?" I asked.

"You get used to it," Lexi stated.

"And what's wrong with being recognized?" Duck asked, striking one of his signature 'superhero poses.' "We should be recognized wherever we go! Well, _I_ should anyway."

"_That_ I will _never_ be able to get used to," I stated.

"We haven't, either," Tech said from across the room.

"It's-not-that-bad-if-you-just-ignore-him-if-you're-lucky-he'll-go-away," Rev said smartly. Duck didn't look happy, and he stalked off. Rev was sitting on the couch, channel surfing, when he passed by something that caught my eye.

"Hey, wait. Go back for a second," I said, walking up behind Rev to see the TV better. He did, and stopped on a news channel.

"In other news, we received word of a scandal at MCI Inc." the reporter stated. That caught everyone's attention, including Duck, who materialized out of nowhere next to Rev. Aaron had left for Washington DC immediately after seeing a doctor about six days earlier, and we hadn't heard from him since. It was completely silent in the room as the reporter continued with the story.

"The CEO and owner of the company, Solomon Marovic, has gone into hiding after his son and second-in-command of MCI, Aaron Marovic, came forward with information proving his father's involvement in numerous criminal activities. His son supposedly broke into his father's office, hacked into his computer, copied everything on it, and took it to the FBI. The FBI has suspected Solomon's involvement in illegal activities for years now, but what they found was beyond anything they ever imagined. Some of the acts we have received confirmation of are making deals for supplies with criminals, putting hits out on at least 49 people, hiring mercenaries to get rid of at least 38 people, spying on the government and police, selling supplies to criminal groups..."

"And the list goes on, and on, and on..." I said sarcastically. "There's no _way_ they can fit it all into one broadcast!"

"How can one guy cause so much damage?" Ace asked in disbelief as the list of illegal activities got longer. "It seems impossible!"

"That's Dad for you; if something gets in his way, he gets rid of it. If he wants something; he'll do whatever it takes to get it," I stated grimly.

"Didn't-they-get-Aaron's-name-wrong?" Rev asked.

"Rev, we had our names legally changed two days ago. I'd be surprised if the news knew about that yet," I said.

"...And the last act we've received word of is more unspeakable than the rest," the reporter said after finally completing the list. "It is a little known fact that Solomon Marovic had a daughter; Sive Marovic. She reportedly ran away when she was only eight years old. It has now been proven, however, that Solomon kicked her out, and then tried to get rid of her through mercenaries after erasing her Missing Person's file, birth certificate, and social security number from existence. However, after a strange turn of events, Sive has joined up with the Loonatics in Acmetropolis. The mysterious past of Solomon Marovic has been revealed, including new evidence concerning the death of his wife, Temperance Thurne."

"It wouldn't surprise me if he was involved with that," I stated.

"Didn't-they-just-get-your-name-wrong-too?"

"_Rev_-" I began.

"I-know-I-know-I-know." Tech shushed us, so we turned our attention back to the TV.

"The future of the company is unknown at this point. Marovic has gone into hiding, and the FBI has so far been unable to track him down. We have tried speaking to the company lawyers about the issue, but they've remained quiet. We will give more on the story at 11. Until then, here's..." That was when we stopped paying attention.

"So Dad's gone into hiding? _Awesome_!" I exclaimed.

"Well that takes care of _that_ problem," Lexi stated. "Do you know what'll happen to MCI?"

"Nope." I didn't know why she'd think _I_ knew.

Just then, the elevator dinged, and Aaron burst out of the doors. Naomi followed him.

"Sive! You'll never guess-!" he began. Then he noticed the news on behind us. "Okay, so maybe you _can_ guess."

"How was DC?" I asked. "Were the feds as bad as you expected?"

"Actually, no," he stated matter-of-factly. He expressed his worries of the FBI not believing him before leaving, and was worried that it would take a while for him to get the story across. "They were apparently _really_ open to any information regarding Dad. And coming from me, they may as well have, and I quote, 'received him gift wrapped in the mail for Christmas.'"

"Do you know where he went?" Ace asked.

"No clue. He's got plenty of different hideouts around the globe that I know of, and have graciously told the FBI about, but he's also got plenty that I don't know about. Odds are he's in one of those."

"What about the company?" Tech asked, walking over to Aaron.

"Again: No clue. I was originally second-in-command, but he probably changed that. Right now, it's anybody's guess."

Then the elevator dinged again, and that time, an older, stuck-up looking man walked out. He had black, comb over hair, large glasses, a briefcase, and an expensive-looking suit on. I pegged him as a lawyer. He looked around, spotted us, and walked up to Tech and Aaron.

"Which one of you two is Mr. Aaron Marovic?" he asked with a slight British accent.

"I _used_ to be; it's Aaron Thurne now. And you are...?" Aaron began.

"I am James Hanson, attorney-at-law, and one of MCI's company lawyers," he explained. "It took a while to track you down, Mr. Mar- I mean, Mr. Thurne. I've been looking for you to give you these." He went through his briefcase and pulled out a file overstuffed with papers. He handed it to Aaron, who began looking through them. At first, he looked mildly interested at the contents of the file, but it steadily changed to a look of shock.

"What is it?" Naomi asked, trying to read over his shoulder.

"It's... It's ownership transfer contracts for the company..." Aaron muttered, never taking his eyes off the papers.

"Yes," Hanson said. "According to official documents signed by your father, and lack of documents that say otherwise, you're still second-in-command of the company. Since your father has gone into hiding, and because he legally can't run the company anymore, everything goes to you. Just don't tell anyone I gave those to you; most of the other company lawyers still support your father, and I'm a dead man if they find out."

"Got it," Aaron mumbled, still staring intently at the papers.

"What's up with you?" I asked, snapping my fingers in front of his face. He jumped a little and looked around.

"I know how much Dad makes in a year," he replied, completely serious.

"Excuse me, but are you Sive Marovic?" Hanson said, turning to me.

"That's Sive _Thurne_. And yeah, I am."

"Apologies. But, between you and me, the two of you could make even more money on this," Hanson said slyly as only lawyers could.

_Yeah, he's totally a lawyer_, I thought.

"How so?" Aaron asked.

"Well... I have it from a reliable source that because your father suddenly disappeared, and would be at least put into jail for life anyways, with the right lawyer, you two could potentially get everything he owns," he replied, pulling a business card out of his pocket and handing it to us. Aaron grabbed it and put it into the file.

"I'll give you a call," Aaron said.

"Then I'll be seeing you," Hanson said. He walked back into the elevator and left.

"I think this means that we have to get back to MCI," Aaron stated. "If the other lawyers really do still support Dad, then I should get back and sign these officially before they appoint a replacement."

"Yeah, good idea," Naomi agreed. "And we just got here, too."

"You're always welcome ta visit," Ace said.

"I'll have to take you up on that sometime. Until then, I'll see you around," Aaron replied.

Ace walked up and shook his hand. "Nice meetin' ya. I could only wish it was under better circumstances."

"Likewise."

"It was great meeting you, Aaron," Tech said as he shook Aaron's hand. "Make sure to look at that stuff I sent you; it'll really help with your computer programming."

"Thanks, I will."

Rev ran up and started shaking Aaron's hand at light speed. "It-was-awesome-meeting-you-I-can't-believe-you're-already-leaving-you-should-visit-soon-maybe-for-Christmas-that-would-be-cool-well-it-would-actually-be-cold-because-it's-December-and-all-"

"Yeah, nice meeting you too, Rev!" Aaron interjected, freeing his arm and rubbing his shoulder.

"See you around, Aaron," Lexi said, holding out her other hand so Aaron didn't have to use his now sore arm. He nodded in thanks.

"See ya, Duck," Aaron said, moving on from Lexi.

"See ya," Duck responded.

Naomi went around and hugged everyone, saying goodbyes along the way. Slam wrapped both Aaron and Naomi, at the same time, in a huge bear hug. He released them quickly, much to their relief; it didn't look like they could breathe.

Naomi walked up to me first and wrapped me in a tight hug. "Bye, Sive. Take care."

"You too."

Then Aaron came up and hugged me tightly. "Bye. And do one thing for me?" he asked so quietly so that only I could hear. "Don't disappear on me again."

"Sure thing," I replied. We separated, and Aaron and Naomi left.

"And so turns another page in my crazy, hectic life," I muttered.

"At least the next page will be better... Right?" Lexi asked.

"Of course!" I replied in an are-you-kidding tone. "Lexi, remember; I thought I had lost everything when I was eight. I've just gotten it all back, plus interest. I'm a pretty happy camper right now."

It was true; I had lost my friends, family, and home when Dad kicked me out. Now, I got my _real_ family back, along with new friends, and a new place to call home. I also got to see Dad get his, which wasn't too bad, either. As far as I knew, I wasn't going to be seeing Dad again for a while.

And I was just fine with that.

**xoxoxoxox**

**Solomon's POV****  
**  
I was freezing. MCI was placed on the west coast particularly because I hated cold weather, but I was forced to hide out in one of my few bases that Aaron didn't know about; Greenland. And I was literally slowly freezing to death waiting for the heating systems to power up (and by that, I mean thaw.)

The base was about as large as the whole main building of the company, which suited our needs. When I figured out what Aaron had done with the information he got from my computer, I had the wing of the building that The Project was based in cleared out. We sent everything to Greenland, and then we all left using a private plane owned by the company, which one of the men from The Project was supposed to use for a company trip, anyways. I only brought those from The Project who were ready to disappear and/or who I couldn't go on without.

And then, two people who I really contemplated leaving behind appeared out of the blowing snow outside and ran in. What I wasn't happy about, though, was the fact that they were the only ones who were there.

"Where are they?" I asked impatiently as they entered the base. I was annoyed, both with them and the weather, and they knew it.

"Uh- W-w-well, s-s-s-sir," the shorter one stuttered. Whether it was from the cold, or his fear of me, I didn't know, and I didn't care; I just wanted an answer. "...We l-l-l-lost th-them, s-s-sir."

"You _WHAT_?" I yelled, picking him up by his shirt. This attracted the attention of everyone in the room, and they stopped what they were doing to watch; I didn't normally lose it like that, but when I did, someone usually died. "Do you have any idea how _important_ this was? It was so _simple_; Sive practically walked right up to me and handed me the key in person, and yet you _still_ managed to _lose_ her? Not even to _speak_ of _Aaron_!"

"B-but sir!" he squeaked. "There w-was a sit-situation! They b-b-beat Mastermind with the h-h-help of the L-L-Loonatics, and then they s-s-surprised us! W-w-we didn't s-stand a chance!"

"Where are they now?" I hissed.

"Uh... W-well, sir... Y-you see..."

"Get on with it!" I barked.

"She's joined with the Loonatics, Aaron has the company, and they both took everything you own!" he said in one quick breath.

If I was angry before, I was full-on homicidal then. There was only one thing I really cared about among the three things he said.

_She's joined with the Loonatics... _I thought_. It will be almost impossible to get my hands on her now... It'll take months of careful planning to get that key, years maybe. It's going to be considerably more difficult than before with the Loonatics involved...  
_  
My thoughts led me into even more anger, and I was seeing red. I launched the small man I was holding into a wall to vent a little. It was strong enough to crack the wall, but it unfortunately didn't kill him; it only knocked him out. I turned around and realized that no one was moving an inch, and they were all staring intently at what just happened.

"Well, what are you waiting for; an invitation? Get back to work!" I roared. It gave me great satisfaction to see all of them jump simultaneously and scurry around, restarting whatever they had been working on before.

_You've won this round, Sive_, I thought_. But this isn't over. I'll do whatever it takes to get that key, and when I do, I'll have the whole world at my feet._

**A/N: Contrary to Solomon's belief, this story **_**is**_** over! …But he'll be back in a later story.**

**Anyways, some closing notes! I'd like to give a special thanks to all my readers who have stayed with the story until the end! (You know who you are… ;) **

**As for my schedule, I plan on taking a two week break (maybe one, depending on how impatient I get.) Honestly, I still need to finish the outline for my next story. Until then, goodbye, and happy reading!**

**R&R!**


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